Card Captor Harry: Hong Kong
by Shadow Crystal Mage
Summary: Sequel of CCH!S1 Harry and Winter are off on a vacation to Hong Kong! There, they meet a cherry blossom, a small wolf, encounter worldly wisdom, and a classmate. But something dark hovers beneath the surface of it all, calling for Clow Reed…
1. We're Going To Hong Kong!

A/N: For those of you who found this while trolling and have no idea what it's about, please check out it's precursor, **_Card Captor Harry, Season One_**,to be found in my profile page. Oh, and do as the ad says…

(Read '**_Harry Potter and the Collided Worlds_**' by **Sokai**, story id 2502930)

_He stood within a seeming void, nothingness as far as the eye can see…_

Drip

_The world seemed to warp and waver, rippling from some unseen source… _

Drip

_With each drop, the world seemed to shift, changing, rippling… _

Drip

_And through it all, he heard one name, being whispered over and over again…._

**Clow Reed… **

**Clow Reed….**

**Clow Reed…..**

----------------------------------------

Card Captor Harry: Hong Kong

by Shadow Crystal Mage

Chapter 1: We're Going To Hong Kong!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does. I wish her well and covet her money. Card Captor Sakura belongs to CLAMP, not me. I covet their drawing skills. Both are used here without their owners' permission. I'm not doing this for money, so please don't sue me.

----------------------------------------

One morning, in number four, Privet drive…

Harry James Evans Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, Friend-of-House-Elves-Who-Want-to-be-Free, Sorcerer's Stone Protector, Basilisk Slayer, Dark Lord Frustrater, Gryffindor Seeker, all around nice guy, and hero of this little piece, slowly opened his eyes, looking blearily about him. His room was a blur without his glasses, but he saw enough to make out the fact that it was just a little after dawn. Sluggishly, he raised one arm to rub his eyes of sleep gunk and found he couldn't. Bemused, he looked down to find the source of his immobilization.

What looked like a small child, a little boy, was lying on his arm, snuggling against his chest. It slept peacefully, lying against him with absolute trust, like a little brother, or a son. His eyes were closed, the tuft of hair jutting out from under his cap falling against his forehead.

Ordinarily, this would be a rather unremarkable scene, were it not for a few things. First, Harry Potter had no brothers (not in _this_ continuity, anyway), and he _definitely_ had no children (not _yet_ in this continuity, anyway). The kid looked absolutely nothing like him. Secondly, the tuft of hair was sky blue. Third, the kid was yellow. A pure, nearly unadulterated shade of pastel yellow. He was wearing rather baggy pants, a yellow vest a shade darker than said pants, a burst-flower collar with little yellow baubles on them, and ridiculously long sleeves that reached _way_ past his feet. A two-pointed fools' cap rested on his head, completing the rather strange picture.

Did we mention the kid's very _skin_ was pastel yellow?

Harry, apparently deciding it was better not to move his arm and risk disturbing his current bedmate (no, not _that_ kind of bedmate!), raised his other arm up to his eyes, rubbing off the gunk that had accumulated there in his sleep.

For those who are wondering, _no_, Harry didn't somehow manifest a taste for boys during the change of categories.

Gently, Harry slid his arm out from under the sleeping Clow sprite (yes, _that's_ what he was!). Grabbing his glasses from the nearby side table, Harry put them on before deciding to get dressed.

Opening his closet, Harry was careful not to disturb the birdhouse inside. Sounds of snoring were emanating from the wider than normal hole in the front of the birdcage. Thankfully, the snoring was muffled enough not to wake up anyone.

Plucking out a few rather oversized pieces of clothing (let us dispense with the jokes comparing their previous owner to some kind of large animal, shall we?), Harry hastily put them on. He'd recently become paranoid that not only could the Clow Cards hear him, but that they could _see_ him as well. And as the majority of them were female, well…

While most everyone knew Harry Potter wasn't a normal boy, but rather a wizard, this Harry Potter wasn't like normal wizards– and that's not counting him being the Boy-Who-Lived. For you see, this Harry Potter was the Card Captor.

For those who claim that is a girl's job, you are referred to an overly intense boy who sometimes goes around in green.

For those who claim that _that_ was a sucky dub, you are referred to the original, where he performed the same function in all but name (and Keroberos' blessing).

By the time Harry finished dressing, the small hole in the fourth wall had been repaired. Still moving quietly, Harry crept over to the bed and reached towards the headboard, beneath the rather worn and thin pillows. With exaggerated caution, he pulled out a long, red wand. Experimentally, Harry waved and swung it a couple of times, getting the blood flowing back into his arm. The Sealing Wand was heavier than his holly wand, and felt more solid and substantial in his hand. He knew for a fact that, unlike his holly wand, it would _hurt_ to get hit with this.

Waving it gently above the sleeping Clow sprite, Harry quietly muttered "_Silencio_" under his breath. The first time the little sprite had woken up without him– and the first time the sprite had _met_ him, actually– he'd let out a loud cry that had echoed throughout the house. Thankfully, Sleep had been on Dursley-duty both times and had promptly put them all under her power while Harry had tried to quiet down the wailing Card. That was good, since the minute he had stopped screaming, the Clow sprite had gone on a rampage that had Harry running all over the house, trying to catch him. He finally cornered him with Shadow's help…

----------------------------------------

"_Finally!" Harry wheezed, the Sealing Wand shaking in his hand as Shadow stood behind him, keeping the sprite he'd been chasing in place. "It's time to end this."_

_Solemnly, Harry raised the Sealing Wand above his head. "I am the Card Captor," he said, by way of introduction, "and I order you to return to your true form!…"_

_Harry paused. "Um, which Card is he?"_

_Behind him, Kero and Sleep (who'd gotten involved in the chase after making sure all the **neighbors** were properly asleep) fell out of the air as they facefaulted. Had Shadow been some other Clow Card– or if he'd had a different looking sprite– he would have slapped his forehead in exasperation. _

"_You were going to Seal him with out knowing which one he was?" Kero screamed as he pulled himself back in the air. Sleep chose to stay close to the ground in case Harry said something face fault inducing again. That was a rare occurrence, sure, and Harry had probably exhausted his quota for the month, but she didn't want to chance it. _

"_Skip the righteous indignation, Kero," Harry said. "Which one is he?"_

_Kero looked over Harry's shoulder and frowned thoughtfully. "I know you… wait, it's a the tip of my tongue… give me a minute…"_

"_Twin," Shadow said softly, his voice seeming to rumble despite the low volume. _

"_I KNEW THAT!" Kero said, yelling in Shadow's face. _

"_Be nice, Kero," Harry said, promptly causing the Sun Guardian to sulk. He turned to Shadow. "Um, correct if I'm wrong, but wouldn't being called 'Twin' imply more than one? It doesn't seem like Clow Reed not to go all out on the symbolic attachments a name possess."_

_Kero facefaulted again, and Sleep was patting herself on the back at her good foresight. After picking herself up from the floor, that is. _

_Harry raised an eyebrow at the fallen. "What? I'm a fanfic writer. We pick up these things. Everyone knows that fanfic writers are the most well read, smartest people in the world. Just look at Hermione."_

_Kero and Sleep exchanged glances. They really didn't know what to say to that._

_Shadow leaned forward, looming over Twin, who was still stuck and currently cowering. "Where is your sister?" he rumbled._

_At this, Twin started looking teary-eyed. "…not here," he muttered. "She's not here… I don't know where she is…"_

_Naturally, Harry started getting that protective feeling in his chest. You know, the one that screams you really should have a kid cry if you can do something about it? "H-hey, don't cry. Um, Shadow, maybe you should step back a little. You **are** kinda scary…" Harry said as he knelt down in front of Twin, doing his best not to give in to his urge to spazz out and flap his arms in panic, settling for awkwardly patting the little sprite's head. _

_As Shadow obligingly moved back a little so he wouldn't loom so much, Kero floated forward. "Hmm. Well, that's a problem. Without the other half of The Twin Card, we won't be able to Seal him properly. We need both halves to be Sealed at the same time for the Sealing to work. Well, at least he won't be able to cause trouble. His sister needs to be around for their power to work–"_

"_Kero, now's not the time," Harry said, glaring at Kero slightly. "Can't you see he's crying?"_

_Yup, that 'keep little kids from crying' instinct was ringing and ringing loud. _

----------------------------------------

It didn't take long afterwards before Harry found himself promising to look for Twin's sister. Really, he had absolutely _no_ will power when it came to crying kids. He didn't realize there was anything in it for him until _after_ Kero explained it.

He's such a nice guy that way.

Anyway, Harry, after deciding it was somehow intrinsically wrong to call the half of Twin they'd found Twin– since he was half of a twin, technically and… Oh, you get the idea!– decided to nickname him Blue, after his hair.

Then, after thinking it over and deciding that wasn't dignified, Harry decided to call him Aoi. He didn't think it was a good idea to name him after an imaginary friend.

Initially, Aoi living with Harry had been something of a problem. Since he couldn't be Sealed, he had to remain as he was, and unlike Keroberos, he was a lot harder to hide. Harry solved this problem by having Aoi wear his Invisibility Cloak. Aoi had to stay in his room most of the time, but that was all right, since the Dursleys really didn't go in there, and Aoi knew to keep quiet and under the Cloak when Harry wasn't around. Kero watched him when Harry was out doing chores or buying anime stuff.

Dividing the food he'd been sent at the beginning of the diet regime was a bit more troublesome. Kero wanted to eat it all. Harry argued that he needed to make it last all summer– or at least as long as possible so as not to impose on his friends so much. In the end, they compromised. Harry gave Kero the bag of rock cakes Hagrid had sent him, saying he had to finish it all before he gave the little Sun Guardian any more food. Harry shared the rest of the stash with Aoi. Not that he really needed to feed the Clow sprite, but it would be rude not to.

Kero, meanwhile, had barely put dent on the rock cakes.

Harry straightened in satisfaction after casting the spell on Aoi. The little sprite forgets to keep it down when he wakes, making the spell necessary. As an after thought, Harry pointed the Wand in Kero's general direction and muttered the spell again. The snores instantly disappeared.

Satisfied that he'd done everything he could to keep the peace, Harry retracted the Sealing Wand back to Key form and headed downstairs for nearly non-existent breakfast.

----------------------------------------

In a rather cluttered apartment, an alarm clock rang. The insistent tones echoed through the modest living quarters, bouncing off the wooden floors, along the muted wallpaper on the walls, and into the other rooms. Outside, someone was working in the kitchen.

Shortly after, a hand came crashing down on the clock, cutting it off for the fifth time that day. One brown eye blearily opened from beneath lank, unkempt silver bangs. Said eye noted the time. There was a mutter of "Still too early" before the eye closed once more.

Silence drifted through the apartment now, golden silence– save for the sounds from the kitchen– that seemed to come with the sun shining steeply overhead. It wafted about the messy room, enfolding everything within it, from the assorted figurines of varying make depicting various characters in different poses, to the shelves full of manga, art books, DVDs, soundtracks and other knickknacks, to the thick textbooks, sheets of parchment, and unusual odds and ends. It glided over the floor, which was cleaner than it usually was, free of the discarded clothes, bags of consumed snacks and other bric-a-brac usually on it.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. "Winter, the results are here," a distinctly female voice said. A pause when there was no reply. "I took the liberty of opening it. You won."

The silence was irrevocably shattered as Winter Moon snapped awake like she'd been given a direct caffeine IV. Her computer and figurines were suddenly in mortal danger as she risked knocking over at least twenty different things with each movement in her rush to get dressed and be presentable. "Thanks for telling me aunty!" she said in between exclamations of victory. She had to call Harry!

----------------------------------------

It was late in the morning before Harry could go back upstairs to eat from his stash. There breakfast of carrot sticks and lettuce leaf– he wasn't allowed any dressing and of course his portions were smaller than Dudley's– hadn't _nearly_ been enough to fill his stomach. This was one of the few things he agreed with Uncle Vernon on: 'rabbit food' sucked.

Still, he thought as he entered his room, closing the door behind him as he went, it was so nice to see Dudley in pain.

He'd barely taken two steps in when he suddenly had an invisible Clow Card sprite hugging his belly. "I take it your hungry?" Harry said with just the tiniest bit of sarcasm.

There was a nodding motion against his stomach as Aoi shrugged off the Invisibility Cloak. He let go of Harry as the wizard bent down to fold the Cloak and put it away properly. By the time Harry had the sealing Wand out and was getting ready to remove the silence spell from Kero, Aoi had already removed their food stash from under the loose floorboards.

"So, what do you want to try today?" Harry said, waving his wand over the little Clow sprite and muttering '_Finite Incantatem_'.

"I wanna try this, big brother," Aoi said, pointing to a foil package of freeze-dried strawberries.

Harry chuckled. After nearly two and a half weeks, he'd gotten used to the Clow Card calling him that. For the moment, 'Master' wouldn't do. "Dry, crunchy space strawberries for you it is, then," he said, picking up a couple of packages for his own breakfast. "Hey Kero, Aoi's picked the snack. Save some for me this time, okay?"

Keroberos floated out of the closet (no, not _that_ closet!) grumpily as he settled himself down next to Aoi. "It's not fair! Why can't I eat more?"

"Because we don't want to impose on my friends, and you really don't need to eat anyway, so feeding you is just indulging your gluttony," Harry said, biting into an energy bar. "I kinda wish we'd gotten Sweet instead of Lee. It would make feeding you so much easier."

Aoi nodded sagely along with Harry as Kero suddenly got a flaming look in his eyes. "Don't worry. When you become the Card Master, you can feed me sweets all the time!"

Harry gave Kero, who was thrusting his tiny fist in the air, the blandest look he could. "Whoopee dooo…" Harry said, twirling his finger unenthusiastically in the air.

Harry was doing the last of his summer homework (FINALLY!) as Kero and Aoi played Scrabble on the floor when the phone hidden under his bed suddenly rang. Immediately, he dived down and picked it up, knowing the phone in Dudley's room was ringing too and not wanting his lump of a cousin to pick up Winter. How did he know it was Winter? Because _no one_ called Dudley on his phone. His frie– er, _cronies_, might have, but Dudley had forgotten the number so long ago he'd probably also forgotten he'd never given it to anyone. The only reason Harry knew was because it had been written on the phone he'd found in Dudley's cast-offs (it was apparently Dudley's original phone, damaged because Dudley had thrown it away in a fit of not liking the color).

Anyway, Harry dove for the phone before the first ring was even finished. "Hello?" he whispered, thankful that the distinctive sound of an extension line being open wasn't audible.

"Harry, guess what?" Winter said.

"I'm not so hot at Divination, Win'," Harry said, settling down cross-legged on the floor next to the two players. "Can't you just tell me straight?"

"I so want to hit you with a mallet right now," Winter growled. "Anyway, I've got great news! Around the time we got back from school, I entered this contest, and guess what? I WON!"

Harry put the earpiece back against his ear, wincing at the volume of the last exclamation. "Um, that's great Win'. I'm really happy for you. But, uh, why call me to tell me about it in the middle of the day?"

"Well, the prize was a trip for four to Hong Kong," Winter said excitedly. "Wanna go?"

Harry froze. "You're… asking _me_ to go abroad with you?" Harry said slowly, wanting to make sure he'd gotten the intricacies of the offer right.

"Uh huh."

Harry frowned and pinched himself, wincing at the pain. Okay, not a dream. He put the phone back against his ear. "Are you sure it's all right?"

"Sure! My aunt says you can come as long as you have your relative's permission. I'm not sure what I'll do with the third ticket, though. I could invite Jenny along, but she has to work…" Winter trailed off.

Harry's eyes flickered to the side. "Um, why don't we bring Aoi?"

Winter squealed, and Harry once more had to remove the phone from his ear. "That's a great idea! I'd like to finally meet him. He sounds so cute, the way you describe him."

"Plus there's no **_way_** I'm leaving him here with my relatives," Harry said.

He could almost _hear_ Winter wince. "Uh, right. Didn't think of that." A pause. "How do we explain him to my aunt?"

----------------------------------------

Getting permission from the Dursleys was pathetically easy. It sort of went like this:

"Uncle Vernon, can I go with a friend on a trip abroad?"

"NO! NEVER! ABSOLUTELY NOT! Harrumph!" Turn purple, mustache bristle.

"Okay. I'll just go upstairs and write a letter to my mass-murderer escaped-convict godfather saying you're being mean to me…"

"**NO! ALL RIGHT, YOU CAN GO TO RUDDY ABROAD! **Harrumph!" Turn from purple to bad oatmeal.

"Thanks unkie Vernon! I wuv you!"

Okay, maybe not exactly like that, but you get the idea…

----------------------------------------

Still, that didn't solve everything…

"Passports for you and Aoi?"

"Create Card."

"Luggage?"

"I am _not_ leaving my school stuff at home. Who knows what the Dursleys would do with it?"

"Broom?"

"…"

----------------------------------------

Of course, Winter wasn't the only correspondence Harry had. He promptly wrote letters to Ron, Hermione and Sirius, telling them of the situation. He really didn't expect a reply from Sirius, since it generally took days to get a letter from him (Hedwig was meeting him in Hong Kong, where Harry promised to make it up to her), but Ron and Hermione replied as soon as possible. In fact, Hermione called him back that very night.

"Harry, you stud you. Trying to get a homerun, huh? Atta boy! Who's da man? Who's da man?"

"Herm, are you drunk?"

Her letter back was much worse. The only thing fit to read was the salutation. The rest read like something out of a lemon.

Harry wondered what kind of home life Hermione had, that she could be uptight and proper one moment and so perverted the next.

After thinking it over, Harry decided he didn't want to know.

Ron was more censor-compliant. After reminding Harry of the Quidditch World Cup, he congratulated Harry for his managing to take advantage of his opportunity and asking for lots of details. So, he was being perverted, but not as much as Hermione. He also said that he'd be sending Harry an owl when Ron's dad managed to get the tickets.

All in all, not so bad…

----------------------------------------

_Water. Water, water, everywhere, as far as the eye could see… Drip Ripples shot over the surface, trembling for an infinite moment… _

Drip

_Light shone dimly from above, a lattice shadowed below… _

Drip

_The named echoed, again and again__… _

**Clow Reed… **

**Clow Reed….**

**Clow Reed…..**

_In the distance, a flicker of white, there then gone in an instant… _

----------------------------------------

It was his birthday, Harry realized again as he finished packing his trunk in the dead of night. He had the unfortunate habit of not noticing, given the fact the Dursleys had pretty much ignored it during the first ten years of his life.

Still, the four birthday cakes he'd received were a very pleasant reminder.

"Wait 'til later, Kero," Harry said, subtly keeping an eye on the way Keroberos was salivating over the cakes. While he was perfectly willing to share, there was no _way_ he'd let Kero have first taste _his_ cakes!

Aoi walked up to Harry just as he finished putting the last catch on his trunk, snapping the belt (handily salvaged once more from Dudley) on the lid and hoping that would be enough. Winter had warned him about airport personnel. Well, Winter's aunt had warned Winter, but it amounted to the same thing. "How do I look, big brother?" Aoi said as Harry turned around.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Trying out your costume for tomorrow?" Harry said as he took in the sight of Aoi wearing some off Dudley's clothes. On Harry, the clothes looked oversized. On Aoi, they were literally a tent. Add in the stocking cap and scarf around his neck, and not one speck of pastel yellow was visible. He looked like a shrunken Kenny-reject, though.

Aoi raised his arms, the overly-long sleeves flopping, and did an awkward little twirl. "No one will notice me in this!" he chirped.

"And if anyone does, we'll just say you're light-sensitive," Harry said, moving for the door to relieve Sleep.

The phone rang.

Harry immediately dove for the phone, wondering what Winter could be calling about. They'd just finished talking an hour ago. "Ugh. Hello?" he said, wincing and rubbing his head where he hit it on the bed.

"Um, Harry, we've sort of got a problem," Winter said, not sounding sleepy at all.

Harry sighed. "If this is about you missing updates–"

"You are getting bonked tomorrow, I swear…" Winter threatened. "No, it's not that. My aunt just got a call. She has to leave town tonight for work and won't be able to come with us."

"So, we can't go?" Harry said in disappointment, getting that deflated balloon feeling in his chest at the thought he'd managed to get the Dursleys to say 'yes' for nothing. He'd been waiting for this for the last three days!

"Oh no, we can go," Winter said. "But my aunt wants someone to go with us, you know, be our chaperone? You… wouldn't happen to know anyone, do you? Because at worst I'll have to ask Jenny and she'll probably slam the door in my face…"

"No," Harry said, his mind running desperately. He was _not_ going to lose the chance to have his first real vacation away from the Dursleys because of someone's whim, darn it! "I've got an idea…"

----------------------------------------

Winter tried not to fidget as her Aunt's car made it's way through Privet drive. She wasn't anxious to meet Harry's relatives. To meet _Harry_, yes, but definitely not his relatives. After hearing the barest details of how they were to Harry, she didn't know whether she was afraid she'd cower in front of them or pull out her wand and start hexing them. Although the latter was mighty appealing…

"There it is," she said, pointing across the dashboard as she spotted a familiar head of unruly hair reflecting the midmorning light. Next to him was a small mound of what appeared to be clothes, topped by a stocking cap. He had his trunk with him.

"I see him," her aunt said, maneuvering her car next to the curb. Winter was out before the car was in park.

"Harry!" she said as she rushed up to him and enfolded him in a hug. "It's so great to see you again! How have you been?"

Harry let go as he finished hugging her back, even though he'd been a little awkward at the beginning. "It's great to see you too, Win'. Um, thanks for the food. I don't think I would have survived without it."

Winter smiled. "No problem," she said, before frowning. "Are your relatives really that bad? I mean, even with how much Auntie was usually gone when I was younger, she still had to take care of me and make sure I was okay. I'm pretty sure there are laws about this sort of thing…"

"Let's not talk about them right now," Harry said as Winter's aunt finally stepped out of the car. "We still need to meet my 'friend'…"

Winter nodded as her aunt came forward. "So you're the famous Harry Potter," her aunt said jokingly as they shook hands. "Winter's been telling me a lot about you. And this must be your little brother Daniel. Come on, let's get your things in the trunk and pick up your friend. You're really lucky there was someone who was willing to chaperone you so late. She must be a very close friend."

Winter's aunt kept talking in the same vein as Harry managed to fit his trunk next to Winter's in the rear of the car, saying that he and his brother were sharing luggage so they could travel light. When a passing comment was made about why the Dursley's weren't out to greet Harry good bye, Harry said, "Oh, we've already said our good byes in private. Aunt Petunia is really horrible when it comes to good byes, and uncle Vernon wasn't much better. They're afraid they'll make a scene if they come out."

Truthfully, they were still unconscious, having been given a precautionary dose of Sleep's dust, but he didn't have to tell her that.

"So, where does your friend live?" Winter's aunt– Harry still hadn't gotten her name– asked as they all got into the car.

"Oh, she says she'll wait around the corner," Harry said, making sure Aoi/Daniel was seated behind the driver's seat in case the 'disguise' came undone enroute. "In fact, there she is now."

Standing at the corner between Privet Drive and Magnolia, carrying a suitcase, was a adult version of Hermione.

"Hey Mir," Harry said after they drove up to her. He turned to Winter's aunt. "This is my friend, Miranda Granger. Miranda, this is… um, I'm sorry, but I didn't get your name."

Winter's aunt laughed. "Oh yes, I did forget to introduce myself. Call me Layla."

"Miranda, this is Winter's Aunt Layla."

The Mirror Card smiled and extended her hand. "Pleased to meet you."

----------------------------------------

"I can't believe that worked," Harry muttered as they watched Winter's aunt driving away, presumably to get ready for her own flight, which would be leaving later that day. She'd only stayed long enough to make sure they knew which counter and gate they needed to be on, before entrusting them to 'Miranda'.

Winter pursed her lips together. "I feel crummy," she muttered as they sat down on a few ever-present uncomfortable-airport-chairs. "You're a bad influence on me, having me lie to auntie like that."

Harry raised an eyebrow. _She_ was the one who'd refined his half-baked ideas. "I know the feeling," he said honestly, sitting down next to her and gesturing for Mirror and Aoi to do the same. "I fell the same way whenever I can't tell Ron and Hermione I've been off Capturing Clow Cards rather than doing whatever lie of the week I feed them."

Then Harry winced, unzipping his jacket slightly. "Hey! That hurt!" he hissed.

Keroberos' head popped out of the opening. "I want out of here!" he hissed back.

In response, Harry pulled him out head-first as Winter opened her carry-on bag and calmly stuffed him into said bag. Winter giggled. "There. You're out," he said.

"This is not an improvement," Kero grumbled. A pause. "Winter, what's this hammer doing here?"

"Oh yeah," Winter said, reaching inside a pulling out a little foam mallet. Harry looked at it curiously, until Winter hit him twice.

"Hey!" Harry said, more surprised than hurt. "What was that for?"

Winter grinned. "I told you you were getting bonked."

"Can we eat cake now?" Keroberos moaned.

"The cakes are in Mirror's suitcase, Kero," Harry said, not liking it one bit. "We'll eat them in Hong Kong."

"But they'll be ruined by then! Can't we eat them on the way?"

"NO!"

Making the fake passports was relatively easy. Harry just borrowed Winter's passport, along with The Create Card, and made three fake passports for himself, Aoi and Mirror–– who by that time had decided she didn't want to look like Hermione and had turned into an older female double of Harry (she was now going as Mirra).

It was during a brief moment of privacy in the men's room that Harry stopped and actually thought about what they were pulling. He, Winter, Kero, and two Clow Cards were going on a plain and heading to Hong Kong for two weeks, without anything vaguely resembling adult supervision. The contest paid for the hotel, and Winter had money her aunt had entrusted her. Harry still had the money he'd exchanged at Gringotts, and it was likely there was someplace he could have it changed, either at the airport or anywhere else.

Basically, two kids, and three kid-minded magical beings left to their own devices in a major city with money and no adults.

Harry suddenly began to think maybe this wasn't such a good idea…

----------------------------------------

_He stood on the surface of an endless body of water. Darkness was everywhere, yet the water was all his eyes could see…_

Drip

_A rustling, just out of the corner of his eye. He tried to turn, but couldn't seem to. Everything moved so slow… _

Drip

_Flashes of white, there, then gone. One, no, two! A whisper of something against his cheek… _

Drip

_A white feather drifted into view… _

**Clow Reed… **

**Clow Reed….**

**Clow Reed…..**

----------------------------------------

With a gasp, Harry's eyes shot open, and he barely managed to stifle his instinctive cry of surprise. His eyes darted to the side, taking in the view of the economy section of the plane. No one seemed to have noticed his abrupt transition from the lands of sleep. Nearly everyone else was asleep, dozing as the in-flight movie played on with only a few spectators. A stewardess was walking up the aisle, away from him. Shaking slightly, Harry gripped the arms of his chair. Okay, _that_ had been creepy.

Taking deep breaths until he called down, Harry glanced across the aisle to his left. Aoi was still fully bundled under his tent, while Mirror was lying back and hugging the blanket she'd been given. Both were very much asleep and looking very peaceful. Harry made a note to keep Aoi quiet when he woke up.

Winter was blearily rubbing her eyes, her blanket pooling on her lap. For some reason, her hair was a mess, getting all over her face and sticking out everywhere. Harry wondered about that. It wasn't like she'd tossed and turned in her sleep.

"You okay?" Harry said, trying to whisper across and aisle and two seats so as not to disturb anyone.

Winter looked up, not seeming to recognize him until she started and looked slightly embarrassed. Harry supposed she knew exactly how she looked. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine. Um, 'scuse me."

Winter quickly moved around the still sleeping Clow Cards, an amazing feat since there was barely space for a fly to go between their legs and the seat in front. Harry watched as she headed for the stall at the back until he realized he was admiring the way a certain area of her jeans moved as she walked and quickly turned to face front, his face red.

Gingerly, Harry reached behind his back, easing the Clow book out from under it's harness. He hadn't left it with his luggage, opting to keep it on him. It was too important to do otherwise. Besides, Winter had told him about how the airport sometimes lost peoples luggage and there was no _way_ he'd risk losing the Clow Cards like that. It was a mark of his concern that he was more willing to lose his Firebolt than his Cards.

Still, Harry prayed that his luggage was on the plane with him.

Harry was staring intently at Clow Reed's symbol on the cover when Winter returned from the stalls, her hair now all pointing in the same general direction and away from her eyes. Settling back in her seat (and once more managing to traverse the space between the Clow Card's legs and the chair in front), Winter slid the window shade up.

"Hey, Harry," Winter said softly as a soft, muted chime rang through the cabin. "We're here…"

----------------------------------------

– **To be continued...**

----------------------------------------

A/N: And they're off! What's going to happen Harry? Keep reading and find out!

I'm looking forward to this being in fourty-one C2s and ninety-plus favorites and alerts.

Just to clarify, Harry only found half of The Twin Card. Where's the other? Well…

Please review, C&C welcome. Oh, and read **Sokai**'s story too. And could I ask you to send **JuMiKu** a line asking her to update **_Ebony_**? Anything else…? Oh yeah, please check out my fic, **_Larxene and the Millennium Ring_**.

----------------------------------------

**Omake for chapter 7, by Laura J. Rie**

----------------------------------------

Kero thought for a moment. "Um, you could try Sealing the Card."

The two watched as Lee slammed The Fight Card's face into the wall, only to have the Card run up the wall and land behind Lee, who was then flipped to the ground.

Harry looked at Kero pleadingly. "Do I really have to? How about we leave and come back tomorrow night? That way, Lee gets the #$ beaten out of her and we get the card."

Kero looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

Harry smirked. "We can also visit the Kitchen and get some sweets to eat."

"What the hell are we doing here? LETS GO!" Kero hollered as he dragged Harry down the hallway and pass the frozen Snape.

A few minuets passed by, during which Snape was still frozen and Lee was beaten to a pulp. Finally time unfroze and Snape ran down the hallway only to stop in front of the mangled and twitching body of Fei Lee. Snape stared for a moment before expressing himself.

"Damn."

----------------------------------------

I kept kicking myself when I read that. It was **_SO_** obvious! I should have thought of it!

Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.

…

…

…

(Read '**_Harry Potter and the Collided Worlds_**' by **Sokai**, story id 2502930)

…

Hey, I had to slip in it somewhere. I promised **Sokai**…


	2. Water, Blossoms, Wolves and Wisdom…

A/N: Enjoy! Anyone who can guess the significance of the title before they get to the end is a cool person. Wanna be my vampire?

(Read '**_Harry Potter and the Collided Worlds_**' by **Sokai**, story id 2502930)

Card Captor Harry: Hong Kong

by Shadow Crystal Mage

Chapter 2: Water, Blossoms, Wolves and Wisdom…

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does. I wish her well and covet her money. Card Captor Sakura belongs to CLAMP, not me. I covet their drawing skills. Both are used here without their owners' permission. I'm not doing this for money, so please don't sue me.

----------------------------------------

"Please enjoy your stay," the bellhop said, opening the door for them as they entered the room.

"Whoa," Harry said, taking it in as Winter tipped the guy and sent him away.

The room looked as big as the Gryffindor common room. Big picture windows on the far wall let light in and showed a spectacular view of the city. Carpet covered the floors, while two doors led into the bathroom and an adjacent room, where Harry and the Cards would be sleeping. Winter would be getting a room to herself.

"Nice," Harry said, migrating towards the windows. Not that he was an expert at hotel room luxury, given that the only places he'd ever been had been a cheap motel by some highway, a shack on a rock in the middle of the ocean, the Leaky Cauldron, and Hogwarts. But he knew what he liked, and he definitely liked this.

"Whoa," Mirror repeated, looking around. "This is bigger than your dorm at school, Master Harry."

Harry looked over his shoulder at her. "Just 'Harry' while we're here, Mirror. People are going to get suspicious if you call me 'Master' in public."

Mirror blinked. "Um, okay Mas– um, Harry."

Aoi, meanwhile was doing something he wasn't supposed to do.

"WHEE!" he said as he bounced on the bed. "This is fun!"

"Aoi! Get down from there!" Mirror said. "You'll hurt yourself!"

"Hey! Make room!" Winter said, jumping on the bed with Aoi. "WHEE!"

"Lady Winter!" Mirror protested. "Don't encourage him!"

Harry chuckled. "Maybe you should drop the 'Lady' thing too, Mir," he said, looking thoughtful. With a grin and a shrug, he bounced onto the bed, unmindful of the fact he was still wearing his glasses.

"Wha–? Mas– Harry! Not you too!"

"WHEE!"

----------------------------------------

When they got settled in– that is, stopped jumping on the bed, called room service, eaten, and found an all-anime channel that was in English that they left on in the background– the first order of business was taking care of Aoi so that he wouldn't stand out (he'd been bundled up the whole way). That was surprisingly easy to do. A little hair dye and skin-tone makeup– both of the magical variety, since that was harder wearing and better looking– both bought by Winter in Diagon Alley the day before their flight, plus a pair of shades, and Aoi looked passably normal. He certainly looked good enough to go around in shorts and an oversized shirt (one of Dudley's but it looked cute on him).

Then came dinner…

Harry looked around, feeling slightly out of place. Okay, a lot out of place. "You know, I think this is the first time I've ever been to a Muggle restaurant."

Aoi, Mirror and Winter's eyebrows twitched. From beneath the table, Kero began to growl. "Remind me again why you had us do _only_ those things to them this summer, M– _Harry_?"

Harry shrugged, once more being in the rather unlikely position of having to protect the Dursleys. "Um, I didn't want to be accused of magic usage?"

"But you _have_, haven't you?" Winter pointed out.

"Yeah, but there's a difference between that and being found out," Harry said, looking around. "Um, there's supposed to be a waiter, right? I know _that_ much."

Eventually, they managed to flag down a waiter, ordering lots of everything. Harry couldn't get enough of the _siomai_, while Aoi, Mirror and Kero– from under the table– all commented that the food was even better than what they remembered. Winter tried a little of everything they recommended, surprising Harry with how much she could put away. She ate almost as much as he did!

"Hey, I'm a growing girl," she said when Kero brought it up.

"You sure you want to be growing?" Kero said, poking her stomach. Harry promptly dropped beaned him with a salt-shaker to the head.

Winter winced as Kero got reprimanded on her behalf, while the two Cards just chuckled. "Ouch. Uh, so, what's up for tomorrow?"

Harry shrugged. "Anywhere is good with me. It'll be just like last year, when I stayed at Diagon Alley. Although I don't think I'll be able to visit every shop this time." Suddenly, Harry grinned. "And no more used books. Once is enough, thank you very much."

Winter and the Cards giggled. "Um, maybe you'd like to get some new clothes first?" Winter said, eyeing what he was wearing.

Harry looked down at himself, taking in his jacket, elephant-pants (at least, they looked that way) and tent-like shirt. "What's wrong with it?" he said innocently. Yeah right!

Winter raised an eyebrow, looking amused. "Um, Harry, you realize you look like a sad imitation of a gangster-rapper, right?"

"It was fine last year," he parried back.

"You were in Diagon Alley last year," Winter retorted. "Wizards are fashion blind enough as it is. And Aoi needs something properly in his size…"

While the two humans began to banter back and forth about clothes and getting Harry some new ones, and the two Cards ordered another round of some meat buns they happened to like, Kero discreetly looked around the room, listening to the conversations. He really hadn't been out much all year. The most he'd gotten around was when they'd still been at Diagon Alley. At Hogwarts, he mainly stayed in his little nest and occasionally went with Harry when they felt a Card, as well as the occasional advanced spell. Truthfully, Kero didn't really think of them as advanced. After all, they were just spells. Compared to the power _he_ possessed…

Shaking his head, Kero went back to looking around. It was slightly disorienting to not hear people speaking in English anymore, but thankfully he still understood the languages. It doesn't seem to have changed much in a hundred years. His ears perked as he heard someone speaking in Japanese. He was intimately familiar with that language, having lived in Japan during the last days of Clow's life. So many bittersweet memories.

"… talking about him like that, oni-san!"

That was from a cute honey-haired girl who had both hands resting on top of her table and glaring at a taller boy– not-so-young man, really– with dark hair and a slightly insolent look, obviously her brother. At the same table was another young girl, about the same age as the first, with long falls of lavender hair and– Kero blinked. There was another boy at the table as well, sitting next to the darkly insolent-looking one that was currently making the honey-haired girl jump through hoops if the way she was fuming was any indicator. His hair was cut similarly to the other boy, and a pair of glasses rested on his nose, but for a moment– Kero risked a look towards Winter, who was currently mapping out a plan to get as many new clothes for Harry in as little time as possible. Yup. They looked very much alike. The same hair color, the same eyes. Freaky coincidence.

Kero turned an ear, not the least bit guilty about eavesdropping as he nudged Aoi for some food and promptly receiving a small plate of buns. From the sound of it, the girl's older brother had been dissing her boyfriend. This promptly set her off, and they'd began digging into each other. Their two companions stayed out of it, other than to exchange amused looks and roll their eyes, munching on their food as if watching a floorshow. From the sound of it, this probably happened as often as Harry's encounter's with that Lee girl, so they probably thought this _was_ a floorshow.

Kero would have listened longer, but he suddenly felt the familiar power of a trained sorcerer approaching. He stifled a sigh, slipping back under the table and beginning to concentrate on hiding his presence. Easterners had the annoying tendency to concentrate on detection, quite unlike their western counterparts, who didn't even seem to know magic _could_ be felt. Well, there was one guy Clow managed to teach, but that was about a hundred years ago…

"Hey, Sakura," he heard. "Sorry I was gone so long…"

"Kero!" Harry hissed, and Keroberos let go of the last of his eavesdropping as he focused completely on hiding his magic. "Time to go. Get in Winter's purse."

As Kero got inside, he wondered if he should tell Harry about the sorcerer, then decided against it. Wasn't important, after all, and besides, they were on vacation. What did Harry care that there were two other magic users two tables over?

----------------------------------------

The effects of jet-lag counteracted by their 'Power of Youth' (as Winter put it, to much groaning from Harry) and a nice dinner, they all settled in front of the TV and watched the local English anime network. Harry, Winter and Mirror all ended up dragging the mattress from the other room in through the door so that Harry and the Cards could fall asleep in front of the TV.

Leaning against a pile of cushions salvaged from the cushy chairs, Harry let himself grow sleepy as Mirror lay back against him, her head against his side. On his left, Aoi was already asleep, whistling slightly as he breathed. Thankfully, there were no snot bubbles blowing out of his nose.

Conan was in the middle of yet another bit of tricky exposition– why did it always have to be a murder?– when Harry finally nodded off to sleep…

----------------------------------------

_Nothingness, as far as the eye could see…_

Harry blinked.

_No… not quite nothingness. There was water too, so much of it that there seemed enough to challenge the nothingness…_

Drip

Harry whirled, reaching for a wand that wasn't there… it was only water dripping, causing ripples that made the sparse light dance above the surface…

_Flickers of white, just out of the corner of his eyes…_

Drip

Harry turned once more, but still there was nothing there, just the infuriating white flickers, radiating a sense of… something…

Harry blinked.

No… not something… _magic…_

_Flickers of white, just out of the corner of his eyes…_

Harry turned, eyes narrowed as he followed the feeling of magic, the whispers in the background barely registering…

**Clow Reed…**

**Clow Reed….**

**Clow Reed…..**

----------------------------------------

Harry woke up to find himself lying on a mattress with Aoi, feeling confused and disoriented. Also on the mattress with them was Mirror and Keroberos, the latter passed out on his stomach, the former snuggled comfortably against his side. While unusual, that really wasn't something to comment about. After all, Kero sometimes got in the bed with them when he felt like company and being cuddled (not that he'd admit it), while Harry really didn't care that Mirror was there. Desensitized, maybe? No, more likely it was those weird nights in the Leaky Cauldron.

What _was_ unusual was the fact that someone had woken him up by nudging his shoulder again and again. Harry opened his eyes and twitched. Whatever else might have been in his mind vanished at the sight before him.

"Rise and shine, sleepy head!" Winter sang as she leaned over him. That wasn't the reason he'd twitched, though. No, the reason he'd twitched was because she was wearing nothing but a very nice, flower-patterned, one-piece swimsuit.

"Um, why are you wearing that, Win'?" Harry said, struggling to keep his voice even and the blood from rushing to his face. He tried not to react as he felt a certain morning problem raise it's head– almost literally.

"It's eight o'clock and momma wants to go swimming!" Winter said as she stood, sounding awfully perky for someone new to the time zone. Harry twitched again, glad he was lying on his side.

"Um, good for you?" Harry said.

"And you're coming with me!" Winter continued.

Harry blinked. "Um, I don't have any swim trunks, and neither do Mirror and Aoi. If you'll notice, we kind of haven't had a chance to get new clothes for us yet."

"No problem!" Winter said as she started putting on a pair of cut-off shorts and an oversized shirt. Harry was hard-pressed to keep himself from flushing as he got a nice view of her posterior. "I think I've got you sizes down. Why don't you call room service while I go down to the gift shop and see what I can buy. Do you think Mirror would mind something Hawaiian?"

Harry looked at his older doppelganger. "Nah, she won't mind."

"How about you?" Winter said teasingly. "Something in Hawaiian, maybe?"

"Any single color that isn't pink," Harry said dryly, not putting it past her to get him exactly that.

"I'll see what I can dig up," Winter said as she picked up her purse and left the room.

Harry let out a sigh and lay back on the mattress, closing his eyes. Well, that went well…

"Did you bring the wand to bed or are you just happy to see me?"

Harry's eyes snapped open as he realized Mirror was awake and smirking at him. With a yelp, he jump out of bed and into the next room as Mirror started laughing like crazy…

The call to room-service was finished by the time Winter came back, and Harry's 'swelling' had subsided by then, much to his relief. He didn't think he'd be able to look Mirror in the eye for a while, though. Winter, thankfully, _hadn't _bought him Hawaiian swimwear, much to his relief. A pair of plain blue shorts were now in his service, while Aoi had a cute pair of **_Tsubasa Chronicles _**shorts she got from who-knows-where (Harry was then tasked to cover him all over with the make-up). Fortunately, the make-up was water proof, and a pair of goggles quickly fixed the eyes.

And Mirror _did_ end up with a one-piece Hawaiian-print swimsuit.

"Looking good," Winter commented as Mirror posed in front of a mirror. The Clow Card was running her hands down her sides, looking faintly red. "Now I know what a sexy Harry-chan in a swimsuit looks like."

"HEY!" Harry cried from where he was getting changed in one of bathrooms. The two females giggled.

The nice thing about Dudley's ridiculously big shirts was that they made excellent covers for the girls to wear down to the pool. Harry wasn't too sure about going, getting the nagging feeling he was forgetting something as he double-checked Aoi's makeup and goggles. It wasn't until he actually got into the water that he realized what the problem was.

"Um, I can't swim," he said, holding tightly to the edge of the pool as he tried not to think of the fact there was nothing under his feet but water, tried not to think of sharks, or killer whales, or Grindylows, or the giant squid…

He wasn't being too successful.

It took a while for him to drag himself back to where his feet touched the bottom of the pool. Mirror didn't seem to have any problems swimming, not that he was surprised. He'd heard stories about beautiful nymphs who swam in enchanted pools and seduced those who crossed their paths, and Clow Cards were the closest things to nymphs he could think off.

If Clow Reed _had_ allowed them to go swimming in enchanted pools and seduce the unwary, it explained a lot.

Of course, that theory took a hit as he saw Aoi struggling to move properly in the water (but then again, he was a guy, so maybe he didn't count). Winter eventually bought the Card an inflatable tube and a pair of water wings so he could, as she put it, "splash around properly."

Harry, being much older, didn't have that luxury.

"Okay," Winter said as he floated on the pool with his hands on the rim to support himself. "Now let's see about teaching you how to swim. Kick your feet like I showed you while I hold you up until you get it." This while putting her arms under his stomach and chest.

Being older wasn't so bad after all.

They ended up spending a lot of time at the pool teaching Harry how to swim. Mirror and Aoi were very encouraging, cheering him on as Winter actually taught him, by the time they'd gotten out of the pool, Harry had managed to learn to float and dog-paddle. Winter considered him reasonably graduated when he managed to make it from the shallow to the deep end of the pool and back. True, his arms burned like crazy afterwards, but he'd managed.

However, the sight of Winter getting out of the pool, dripping wet, her swimsuit clinging in all sorts of interesting places, were more than worth it. The congratulatory hug beforehand wasn't so bad either…

----------------------------------------

"I'm not sure this is the best way to be spending our vacation…" Harry said as he stripped down to his underwear in the changing room of the place Winter had dragged him to after a quick lunch. With him was a pile of clothes Winter had chosen for him to try on, none of them in pastel colors. For some reason, he didn't like pastel. Considering that most of the Clow Cards came in pastel shades, and that most of them were female, that was somewhat understandable.

"Oh, hush you," Winter said. "It's my time and money, and I'll spend both whatever way I want."

Harry winced, having a little difficulty removing the holster he stored the Clow Book in. One of the hooks had gotten tangled up with his shirt. "Uh, about that… I'll pay you back, I swear. It's the least I could do after you got me out of the Dursleys a full month before time."

Winter made a thinking sound. "All right," she said. Mischief crept into her voice. "But only after you pay me all the chocolate you owe me. Lee's already paid up."

Harry blinked, pausing in the middle of putting on one of the shirts she'd picked out. The locket she'd given him for Christmas lay cold against his skin. "When did that happen?" he said, sliding it down all the way, then bending to grab a pair of pants.

"When we left for home," Winter said conversationally. "I think you were dealing with Snow at the time."

Harry made a non-descript sound of having heard. "Are Aoi and Mirror staying out of trouble?"

Winter moved a little away from him, then went back. "Mir's looking at a couple of outfits she'll probably just copy if one of us don't buy them for her, and Aoi is trying out some poses in front of a mirror. So far, they're not wandering off."

"Yeah, they're great like that," Harry said, looking at himself in his booth's own mirror. "I'm coming out."

"So you _are_ gay?" Winter teased. "I knew there was a lot of sexual tension between you and Malfoy. You could do better."

Harry gave her a dirty look as he stepped out of the changing booth. He was wearing a plain blue shirt and a pair of khakis. Winter barely gave the thing a glance. "Definitely not you. Next!"

After getting Harry's clothes, which took up most of the day since Winter and Mrror kept getting him new things to try on, buying Aoi a cute backpack for Kero to hide in (he'd been complaining about the purse being cramped and having a lot of uncomfortable pointy things) and getting Winter the promised stash of chocolate, they got some ice-cream (Harry's treat). Winter snagged an English guidebook along the way.

"So, what do we do tomorrow?" Harry asked, licking his chocolate scoop tentatively, as if afraid it would fall off the cone. That happened to Dudley a lot, the pig.

He and Winter were standing a little away from the store they'd bought the ice-cream from, waiting for Aoi and Mirror to come back so they could return to the hotel. Harry had given the two Cards– and Kero– a little more money to buy themselves a few more scoops, although that was mostly for the Sun Guardian's benefit. The other two could tell when to stop. Still, happy Clow Cards meant a happy Card Captor…

Plus it gave him a little alone time with You-Know- Her.

"Hmm," Winter said, perusing the guidebook in her hands. "We could try going to the Bird Garden. It's not too far from hear, and we could walk it if it's a nice day. I heard it's supposed to be nice."

"Oh," Harry said, a little subdued. Could he be any _more_ obvious?

Winter quirked an eyebrow at him. "Why? What did _you_ want to do?"

----------------------------------------

"ALL RIGHT!" Harry cried, high on sugar and wearing a black cap with rounded ears while he held an invisible dog leash in one hand and some kind of baton in the other. "WHERE DO WE GO NEXT? OOH, I KNOW, LET'S–"

Behind him, Winter, Aoi, Mirror and Kero (in Aoi's backpack, but he could hear very well) sweatdropped as the hyper Card Captor ran off towards yet another ride.

"I'm guessing he's never been to a theme park before," Winter said, her voice equal parts dry, exasperated and amused.

"Neither have we, and you don't see _us_ running around like idiots," Mirror said, then looked chagrined.

Winter patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry," she said conspirationally. "It'll be our little secret."

"Feel free to call him an idiot right now," Kero said from the backpack. "I know I am."

"Can we go now?" Aoi reminded them and they started moving towards the last member of their party, who was currently jumping in place and telling him to hurry up so they could get to more rides before the lines filled out, darn it!

All of them made a mental note never to take Harry to Disneyland again.

----------------------------------------

After three days of Disney, Harry couldn't be happier, and the four were feeling sick, such that Winter nearly swore off ice cream (don't ask). Aoi and Kero never wanted to be on a roller coaster again.

"So where to next?" Winter said after she and the others managed to get over their Disney and not clock Harry one every time they set eyes on him (he was still wearing the ears).

"OOH, HOW ABOUT–" Harry began.

"**NO, WE ARE NOT GOING TO OCEAN PARK!**" Winter, Mirror and Kero all yelled. Aoi was passed out on the mattress on the floor, too exhausted to participate.

Harry pouted. "Meanies."

----------------------------------------

"This place," Harry said dryly, "is for the birds."

He was promptly hit by Winter's guide book as she groaned.

"What _you_ groaning about?" Harry said, rubbing his head. "_I'm_ the one who got bopped!"

"We spent three days going to Disneyland," Winter said primly. "Now it's our turn to pick where we go."

Harry rolled his eyes, watching Aoi and Mirror discreetly as they looked at some birds. "Fine," he said, then stifled a yawn.

"And that's what happens when you get so hyper you can't sleep," Winter said.

"Tell me about it," Harry said. "No one told me you get weird dreams, though."

Winter patted him on the shoulder. "Happens when you overeat," she assured him. "Moderation makes it go away."

With that, she ambled over to join the two Cards, leaving Harry with little choice but to follow.

The Bird Garden, replacement of the previously existent Bird Street, was, predictably, filled with birds, and those who loved birds. There were many cages filled with them, as well as, for some reason, people selling crickets, which Harry supposed was to feed some of them.

"Too bad Hedwig isn't here yet, " Winter said. "You could bring her here."

"Don't you think she'd stand out?" Harry said. He had yet to see an owl in this place.

Winter shrugged. "At least you'd have a bird."

"I've had enough of birds for a while," Harry muttered under his breath, too low for Winter to hear. Specifically, little white birds.

Because that was what those flickers of white in his dreams had been. Small white birds. Damned dreams…

Involuntarily, Harry shuddered.

Realizing he was getting left behind and might lose the others in the crowd, Harry shook himself out of his reverie and began to rush towards them, brushing against a girl about his age as he did so.

"Excuse me," he said, smiling apologetically and hoping she understood. After all, there was no guaranty that everyone here spoke English.

The girl smiled almost serenely, her purple eyes shining in a way that reminded Harry of someone as she nodded, before her attention was drawn by a honey-haired girl who called out to her. Harry vaguely recognized the language as Japanese before he put it out of his mind, squeezing in between two tall guys carrying ice cream cones to reach Winter, who was admiring a mynah. Harry looked over her shoulder. According to the sign, the bird was trilingual, capable of speaking in English, Mandarin and… Harry twitched. _Yiddish_? Okaaaayyyy…

"I wonder if there's anything here an owl would eat…" Harry mused, moving away from the trilingual bird. "Hey Win', do you think Hedwig would eat crickets if I told her they were a local delicacy?"

"Probably not," Winter said, moving over to the next booth, which contained a few sparrows. "Where do you think we could get a hold of some owl treats?"

Harry opened his mouth, intending to remind her that they didn't know where the local equivalent of Diagon Alley was, when the words suddenly died in his mouth as he felt _something_. His mouth snapped shut with an audible crack as he turned his head around rapidly, searching. It had been a flicker on his senses, speaking only of magic and nothing else, yet a magic quite unlike anything Harry had ever felt before. Over the crowd, some distance away, he saw Mirror's head pop up. So, she felt it too.

A second flicker passed through Harry, and he looked up.

Two white birds stared down at him.

----------------------------------------

Winter frowned as Harry suddenly closed his mouth so hard she could _hear_ it, looking widely around. What was his problem now?

"Harry?" she said, wondering what had gotten into him. He ignored her, intent on whatever it was he was looking for. Abruptly, he looked up. Curious, she did as well.

She blinked at the two birds perched on a tree-branch above them. They were snowy white, standing out starkly against the greenery.

"Huh," she said, wondering what was so special about them. "Did those two escape? They look a bit out of place–"

She blinked and the birds were in flight, their white wings like flickers as they swam through the air, darting off to the side.

Half a second behind, Harry was running after them.

Winter blinked in confusion, wondering what the heck was going on. "Harry? Hey, Harry! Where the heck are you going?"

She looked around, hoping to call Mirror and Aoi so they could go after Harry, when the two Cards suddenly materialized by her side. Aoi was hugging his backpack in front of him, slightly bent over it as she tried to cover up Kero's head. The Card girl immediately grabbed hold of Winter's elbow and started to propel her in the direction Harry had gone.

"Wha– Mirror! What's going on?"

Mirror pursed her lips, and the fact her current incarnation was a female version of Harry was driven home. That was the same look Harry occasionally got when he was worried. "There's… magic in the air. We need to join with Master Harry."

It was the first time in fours days Mirror had forgotten not to call Harry 'master'…

----------------------------------------

Harry ran, only peripherally aware of his surroundings as he dodged pedestrians and obstructions, almost crashing into a sign once as he ran. He gaze remained rooted towards the skies, following the flight of the two white birds.

The same two birds that had been haunting his dreams.

They made an abrupt turn over a building, nearly causing Harry to crash into a wall before realizing there were no paths that way. The abrupt transition suddenly jerked him back slightly into reality, and he realized he'd strayed quite far from the Bird Garden. Right then, he didn't care.

Casting a quick look around, Harry ducked into the nearest alley, sparing only a glance behind him as he reached into the neck of his shirt with one hand while reaching towards the small of his back with the other.

"Key of power, show me your true form," Harry said, skidding to a halt as he reached the middle on the alley and finally pulling out the Clow Book. "I, the one to whom you are bound, command it! RELEASE!"

The Key burst into light in his hands, elongating itself as a magic wind rose about him. The Sealing Wand formed in his hands, and he used the butt of it to tap the Clow Book, undoing the lock. Quickly, he dumped out the Cards into his hand and fanned them open, before plucking out a few Cards and putting the rest back into the Book.

Replacing the book into it's holster, Harry snapped one of the Cards into the air. "JUMP CARD!"

Half a moment later, Harry leapt into the sky, catching himself on the lip of a building's roof and launching him higher, heedless of the possibility of being seen. After all, after the second kick off, he'd risen at least two hundred feet into the air.

He twisted, wishing he had his Firebolt with him so he could stay up as he searched, trying to find the traces he was looking for. Already, the feeling of the magic was fading, and he couldn't–

_A flicker of white, just out of the corner of his eye…_

Harry whirled, in time to see a two miniscule streaks flying away from him, barely noticing that gravity had insisted on reasserting itself a while ago. His foot touched a surface and he immediately kicked off, the magic absorbing the kinetic energy that would have otherwise shattered his legs. Streaking through the air, he bounced around like someone out of an anime, hopping from roof to roof as he tried to close the distance between himself and his targets. A part of him anxiously asked why it was so important he follow, but it was overwhelmed by the chase.

The birds arced upward, and Harry could barely make out one perched on the chain link fence at the top of the building. He landed and kicked off again with all his might. A glib part of his mind murmured, '_…able to leap tall buildings in a single bound…_'.

Harry grabbed the links with one hand– he'd never let go of the Cards; the Sealing Wand was tucked into his belt– kicking off with his feet once more with only the barest fraction of the force he'd used to jump that high. The move caused him to flip up as his hold on the fence acted as a fulcrum, sending him up and over. He landed on his feet in a crouch, just in time to see the birds dive over the lip of the building again. Harry ran towards it.

Peering over the edge, he saw it lead into a space inside the building, designed to give the inner rooms of the building window space. The very height of it made the sunlight reaching down almost nonexistent and leaving the bottom perpetually in shadow. In the shade, Harry saw a flicker of white.

Without a second thought, he jumped down after them.

Cold wind whipped into his face as he fell, moving out of the light and into the shadows. The resulting transition left him almost blind, and he blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision. Without his eyes, he felt like he was falling into an endless abyss, into an empty nothingness that was swallowing him whole…

Abruptly, he saw the ground, and his body automatically moved to brace him. He landed easily on his feet, moving into crouch, one hand on the Sealing Wand, the other holding the handful of Cards gently but securely.

The wings disappeared from around his feet as Harry looked around. The place was completely in shadow, the only light the distant glow of the sky above. There was almost-dead grass beneath his feet, probably sustained by what little sunlight and rain reached the place. It seemed to be a disused courtyard of some sort, a dark, dreary zone that had soaked in the perpetual gloom that hung over it. Some stray bits of garbage littered the area, while a few stones protruded from the earth like teeth.

The only structure Harry saw was a wide basin of stone with a red roof above it. The roof was of a style that he couldn't specifically name, but associated in his mind with what was 'Asian'. It stood in the middle of the area, offering no other place to hide. Which was exactly why Harry frowned.

The birds had disappeared.

----------------------------------------

Meanwhile, back with the rest…

Winter threw up her hands, letting them slap back onto her sides. "Well, we've lost him," she said, blowing out of the corner of her mouth and trying to flick an errant lock of hair. "Now what?"

Her question was directed at the two– technically three– magical beings who'd been dragging her along until recently. Aoi and Mirror were looking around in confusion, trying to regain their sense of Harry's location by 'feeling' him, or so they said. Winter wished she knew that trick. Must be dead useful.

Sighing, Winter allowed herself to be drawn to the shops again. She wasn't _too_ worried about Harry. After all, he had the Clow Cards with him, as well as both his wands, although she wasn't sure if he'd be willing to use the other one, what with being under-aged and all. Besides, he knew where the hotel was, and they'd arranged before hand that if they were split up and couldn't meet again they were to head to the hotel.

Still, she wondered why he'd gone running off.

Winter was just leaning forward to get a better look at something when she accidentally bumped into someone a little harder than she'd intended. She turned, intending to apologize when she saw the person she'd come into contact with was turning around as well, a chagrined look on her face.

"Oh, sorry," Winter said, and was going to say more when the other girl beat her to it.

"No, it was my fault," the girl in accented English. She gestured towards the camera she was holding apologetically. "I was taping my friend and didn't see you there."

Winter smiled easily, her natural friendliness coming to the fore. She made friends with a Slytherin, after all. "Hey, no harm done. I wasn't watching where I was going either. I'm Winter Moon," she said, extending her hand.

The girl smiled as well, taking the hand in her own, the one not occupied with the camera. "A pleasure to meet you, Moon-san," the girl said, her easy smile matching the serene look in her lavender eyes. "I am Tomoyo Daidouji."

"The pleasure's all mine," Winter said.

Someone called out Tomoyo's name, and the girl turned, answering in Japanese. Winter admired the way the girl's hair, the same color as her eyes, seemed so fluffy, sweeping this way and that like something out of a shampoo commercial. No, better; shampoo commercials didn't show hair that beautiful.

Eventually, Tomoyo turned to Winter. "Sakura-chan, this is miss Winter Moon. Miss Moon, this is my best friend, Sakura Kinomoto."

Winter blinked at the sudden introduction. She hadn't been expecting that. Before she could say anything, however, the Sakura girl was greeting her warmly, and all she could do was respond in kind. There seemed to be something about her that radiated friendliness.

For a moment, Winter entertained the notion of the existence of a real-life Mary Sue, then shuddered internally, kicking the idea away as far as possible and running at the speed of light. Such notions would surely bring about the end of the world– or at least a murder charge. There were some Mary Sue's that you just had to kill. Before they got to the 'elaborate funeral where everyone they affected comes to reminisce on what a wonderful person she was' point, anyway

Winter was talking to the two girls– what the conversation was is irrelevant; she couldn't even remember how it got started– when she suddenly felt a presence behind her, in that 'someone is standing so close to your personal space they are warping it's field with their own and producing a gravitational anomaly and that's how you know' kind of way. Turning, she saw Mirror standing there with a neutral look on her face, her eyebrow quirked in and inquiring fashion. She also became vaguely aware that the two girls she'd been conversing with were looking at her curiously.

"Ahem," Winter articulated, gesturing towards Mirror. "I believe another intro is in order. This is Mirra, Mirra–"

"Potter," Mirror interrupted smoothly, so that Winter's pause was barely noticeable. "I'm supposed to be chaperoning her and my nephew–" Winter's mouth twitched, and she wondered how Harry would react to being called Mirror's nephew, "– who seems to have disappeared somewhere."

Then Winter blinked, realizing something. "Um, where's Aoi?"

Mirror jabbed her thumb over her shoulder, and Winter craned her neck around the taller Clow Card. Aoi was looking intently at what appeared to be bird food, although she _really_ couldn't tell from the packaging. They could be bird steroids or something, for all she knew.

The two girls followed her gaze, and Sakura said something that Winter knew perfectly well. "Kawaii…" the girl said up catching sight of Aoi.

Tomoyo, meanwhile, blinked. Winter caught the expression and decided to take the initiative. "He has a skin condition that makes him sensitive to the sun," Winter said softly. The girl nodded in understanding, not wanting to press further.

Suddenly a loud, stringent voice sounded off, drawing the attention of the two girls. They all turned to wards a dark-haired girl with a slightly peeved look on her face who looked vaguely familiar, although Winter was certain they'd never met before. Winter's new acquaintances seemed to know her, because they began answering back apologetically in Japanese. She was starting to wonder if maybe she should go away when Tomoyo suddenly turned and introduced her in English.

She was suddenly under a piercing look, and Winter tried not to squirm as the new girl gazed at her intently. "Winter Moon?" she said, more to herself than anything else. "I think I've heard that name before. Hey, do you–"

Then Winter saw it. Or at least, saw _her_. She was looking off to one side as she walked in Winter's direction, her eyes clearly distracted, a slight frown on her face. It was then that her ingrained notions of politeness were overridden.

"**LEE!**" she cried, glomping on to her surprised target. Yes, glomped. She honest to goodness glomped on to the girl, doing everything short of rubbing her cheek on some part of her. "**LEE, IT'S SO GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN!**"

Lee Fei, fourteen years old, Slytherin, self-proclaimed rival of the Card Captor, self-proclaimed future Card Mistress, and sorceress supreme in training, froze like a drop of ice in liquid nitrogen as Winter glomped her. The only sign of life was the slight twitching of her eyebrow.

Finally, she managed to choke out, "MOON?"

Winter smiled brightly as the three other girls and Card Sprite looked on. "Hey, Lee! Fancy meeting you here. What are you doing in Hong Kong?"

"I live here," was the still-stunned reply as the Slytherin girl stared at the affectionate Ravenclaw.

Winter laughed, knocking on her head as she finally let go. "Oh yeah. Silly me for forgetting. Oh man! That means I could have visited you as soon as we arrived!"

"Well, you're here now," Lee said, still sounding amazed but her voice becoming bright. A little _too_ bright, really, but Winter didn't notice.

"You know this girl, sis?" the girl who hadn't been introduced to Winter yet said, eyeing her with a gleam in her eyes.

Winter snapped her fingers. "_That's_ where I recognized you from! You're Lee's sister! She showed me a picture of you once. I can't believe I didn't recognize you…"

"We were pretty busy at the time," Lee reminded her. Oh yeah. They'd been dealing with the aftermath of The Libra Card at the time. "Anyway, Moon, this is my sister, Lee Meilin. I assume you already know Kinomoto and Daidoji."

"Call me Meilin," Lee's sister said. "So, how do you know my sister?"

"Oh, we go to school together," Winter said brightly, then turned to Lee. "How's your homework coming along? My aunt wouldn't let me go until I'd finished everything."

"She must know _my_ aunt," Lee said dryly, although her hand was gripping the pendant hanging around her neck like it was a lifeline. "I've only just finished last July."

"School?" Meilin interrupted. "You both go to the same school?"

Winter gave her what she thought was a mysterious smile. "Yeah. You know, that boarding school in Scotland that doesn't allow cell phones?"

The two exchanged a knowing grin while Tomoyo and Sakura looked. "They don't allow cell phones?" Sakura said, surprised.

"Crazy rule they've got," Winter said. "Besides, I doubt they have a signal there anyway."

"Hey, you wanna come to our house?" Lee suddenly said, a little bit too fast for casual. Winter didn't notice. "As soon as our cousin comes back we can go. He's off checking something, but he should be back soon."

"Oh, I can't," Winter said, and Lee seemed to droop slightly. Poor girl must have missed her friends so much, Winter thought. "Harry ran off somewhere and we have to wait here for him to come back before he go back to the hotel and wait for him there."

Lee smiled apologetically, before she suddenly stiffened and straightened. "Wait… did you say 'Harry'? As in… 'Harry _Potter_'?"

"Oh yeah," Winter said, slapping her forehead. Why was she being so forgetful lately? "It completely slipped my mind. Harry's here too!"

That was when Mirror, unnoticed until then, decided to step forward. "Hello, Lady Lee. It's nice to see you again."

Lee whirled, reaching into her pocket and pausing. "You?"

"Yeah, that's right," Winter said. "I don't think you've met her before. This is _Mirra_," with much emphasis on the word.

"Harry received your letter," Mirror said blandly, a small smile on her face.

"Really?" Lee said, glancing sideways at Winter. "How did he take it?"

"Rather well, considering," Mirror said a bit dryly. "He was quite… passionate."

"He liked it that much, huh?" Winter said, slapping Lee on the back. "Guess he really missed you."

Lee smiled and opened her mouth, about to say something when she suddenly froze and whirled …

----------------------------------------

Harry looked around as he tucked the Clow Cards into his jacket's inner pocket, wondering where those blasted birds had gotten to. Well, a part of his mind was. The rest, now that he wasn't chasing anything, were wondering what the heck he was doing here, and was he insane, pulling out the Key, turning it into the Sealing Wand, pulling out The Jump, _DOING MAGIC IN PUBLIC_,_ **JUMPING THROUGH THE AIR WITHOUT SO MUCH AS AN INVISIBILITY CLOAK**_, **_AND NOW HE WAS LOOKING FOR TWO BIRDS HE SAW IN HIS DREAMS!_**

He needed to have his head examined.

_Drip_

Harry snapped up straight, searching for the source of that sound, one of the sounds that had been haunting his dreams for the past week. Where was it? Had it just been his–

_Drip_

Okay, _that_ hadn't been his imagination! Curiously, he turned towards the sound, towards the well in at the center of the courtyard. Hesitantly, he began to walk towards the dilapidated structure as he hefted the Sealing Wand for reassurance, passing one of the tooth-like stones as he did. Unnoticed behind him, the stone began to glow subtly…

Harry reached the well, standing beneath the shadow of the seemingly ancient roof and the taller, darker shadow of the building. He fought the urge to light the end of his wand, for fear someone would look out the window. But then, a sensible voice in his head said, why did he think it was safe to jump down in the first place? And would people get suspicious seeing him there anyway?

Harry frowned, shaking his head. He thought he'd gotten rid of all the voices over the summer.

_Drip_

Harry watched as the ripples grew from the center of the water. Not a well, he realized, but rather a basin. It was filled almost to the brim with water, but so shallow he could almost see the bottom through the impurities. Debris and garbage lay on the bottom, like a post-apocalyptic flood in miniature.

Frowning, Harry looked up, going so much as to stand on the lip of the basin. He could just barely make out a moisture-laden growth of moss, dripping downwards above the pool. Even as he watched, a droplet of water hung suspended on the end, waiting to fall.

Strangely disappointed– what had he been expecting?– Harry turned…

"OIY!"

The next thing he knew, he was spinning away from the pool, turning quickly towards the voice. Unfortunately, that wasn't a very smart thing to do, especially if one was bending down while on the lip of a basin. Harry overbalanced, and before he knew it…

SPLASH!

Harry winced at the pain that dug into his palms, barely keeping himself from falling all the way into the pool. Not that it helped. His hips were very much underwater, and the big splash meant a lot of him had been struck by indirect fire– er, water. The knuckles holding the Sealing Wand were screaming in pain, and his glasses hung precariously from one ear. He tried to use his other hand to put them back in place and ended up knocking them into the water, splashing himself some more in the process.

Making a sound between a sigh and a growl, Harry fished around in the water until he felt his glasses and put them back on his face as the one who'd called out came closer. As he did, Harry could feel a tightly controlled… something. It took him a moment to realize it was magic.

Blinking owlishly and trying his darn best not to look embarrassed, Harry looked up. The boy's face– he could tell that much– was under shadow, but he was holding his hand out to Harry. The boy said something that Harry didn't understand, and Harry said as much.

"I'm sorry?" Harry said, trying to make out details despite the gloom and the fact his glasses still had water on the lenses.

The boy paused, then said again, "Are you all right? You fell down pretty hard."

Well, he spoke English, at least, and in an accent Harry understood. He reached forward to accept the hand. "I'm fine. Just wet, that's all."

The boy managed to pull him up from the pool, and Harry tried to reduce the splashing to a minimum in deference to his helper. Together, they managed to get him out with getting him an wetter.

"Thanks," Harry said, reaching for his glasses in an attempt to get them marginally dryer. He was pretty sure there was still a dry spot somewhere next to his collar…

There was a sharp intake of breath that caused Harry to look up, things were a bit blurry, but now that they were out from under the basin's roof, he had a slightly clearer view of his helper. And he could clearly see that said person was looking at…

Oh.

He was looking at the very-much-visible-in-Harry's-hands Sealing Wand.

Quickly, Harry tried to think of an excuse for it's presence, even if it meant saying that it was a toy spin-off from a magical girl show. Before he could, however…

"You're the Card Captor," the boy said, sounding surprised and amazed. Harry took a step back.

"What?" Harry managed to sputter out. How the heck did he know that? Harry asked as much. "How do you know that?"

The boy paused, then seemed to gather himself. "My name is Syaoran Lee, of the Lee clan. Welcome to Hong Kong, Card Captor. My cousin Fei has told me a lot about you."

Harry froze. **_OH, SHI–_**

The boy– Syaoran– leaned forward and said, _sotto voce_, "Don't worry. I don't believe a word she says."

Harry blinked. Okay, he hadn't been expecting _that…_

----------------------------------------

"…so she admitted to kissing the Clow Cards?" Syaoran said, tones of disbelief in his voice even as he laughed.

"Never even realized what she was saying until it was out," Harry confirmed, laughing as well as they walked back to the Bird Garden to try and rejoin with anyone they knew.

"I wish I'd been there to see that," Syaoran said, shoulders still heaving in mirth.

Harry decided he liked Lee's cousin. One thing, though…

"You know, it feels weird, calling you Lee," Harry said, ignoring the looks people were casting his way as he dripped down the road. Even after the incident with Snow, he still hadn't managed to find a spell that dries him. "I'm mean, I'm used to calling _her_ that…"

His companion shrugged as they entered the confines of the Gardens. "Call me Syaoran, then," he said easily. "Now, you promised me more embarrassing stories about my _dear_ cousin?"

Harry grinned. Ah, to finally meet someone who shared his love of all things embarrassing for Lee! "There was this one time she was on this theatre club that was making this _weird_ production…"

There was a sharp call of to one side, and Syaoran turned, causing Harry to stop and turn as well. Approaching them was a tall guy with dark brown hair, followed by… Harry blinked. The guy behind him looked like he could be Winter's older brother! He had silver hair and a bright, serene smile, although that was all the resemblance he could see. Still, he didn't think he'd ever meet another person who could smile like that…

The guy approached Syaoran, speaking what Harry recognized as Japanese. At first, Harry worried there'd be trouble, since he heard the word _gaki_ used several times, but after a while he realized the mood was friendly, if slightly challenging. Syaoran, at least, was reacting in kind. It sounded like how he and Lee talked 'rival-like' in front of Winter, except here the hostility was the tone that was false.

Eventually, Syaoran turned to Harry. "It looks like you might have to look for you companions on your own. I have to get back to my girlfriend. Or would you like to surprise Fei?" The tone mischievous, and Harry wondered how this guy could possibly related to the stuck-up Slytherin he knew and loathed. For a moment, he was sorely tempted, but Winter and the Cards would be waiting for him and–

"I have a camera so you can always see the look on her face," Syaoran added.

Well, Winter would understand. "Sure!"

Harry followed the three other boys through the Gardens, the brown-haired older boy leading the way. Syaoran introduced him as Touya, while the silver-haired one that reminded him of Winter was Yukito. Touya nodded once to acknowledge his presence, while Yukito was more polite, asking him how he was and if he was liking the city so far.

Rounding the corner, Harry felt a familiar presence tickling his senses and he reached out towards it. Something very annoying instantly made itself known. Lee was with Winter.

After allowing himself fifteen– okay, twenty– okay, a minute, tops!– of mental swearing, Harry decided to make the most of it. Trying to conceal his magic as much as possible– something Kero had tried to teach him to try anf even the odds when Lee learned The Shield could be used to hide her presence; it didn't work as well as they hoped– and hoping that Lee wouldn't be paying attention, Harry hid behind the three boys as they approached the group of girls. He recognized the dark-haired girl as Lee's sister, but he didn't know the other two, although one seemed familiar…

Coming up behind Lee, he let his attempt at concealing himself fall away and was very pleased with the look on Lee's face as she suddenly turned around. Off to one side, he could hear the sound of Syaoran's cell phone camera taking a picture.

"Hey, Yuri-girl," Harry said, smirking in a _most_ Draco Malfoy way as green eyes met the hated red of his rival. "It's been a while. Kissed Fight lately?"

----------------------------------------

**- To be continued…**

----------------------------------------

A/N: and now reintroducing: Sakura! Touya! Tomoyo! Yukito! Syaoran! Meilin! And… FEI!

Ah, the return of my favorite Slytherin…

Syaoran might be OOC, but consider this: he'd been dating Sakura for _quite_ a while, he had none of the pressure to gain the power of the Clow Cards, and he has a more carefree relationship with Fei than he does with Meilin. Especially the dating Sakura part. That would soften him up a _lot_. After all, when Sakura became the Mistress, he wasn't as intense and competitive as he used to be. _He _was the shoulder Sakura cried on when Yukito said 'sorry, try someone else', remember?

----------------------------------------

Omake 

----------------------------------------

Harry, Winter and the Cards were walking down the street when they suddenly ran into Fei.

Fei stared at Harry, her eyes going comically wide.

Harry stared at Fei, twitching, his hands spasming as if they wanted to close around something– whether a wand or Fei's neck was debatable.

Their arms suddenly came up, pointing at the other. "YOU!" they both cried. "WHAT THE HECK ARE **YOU** DOING HERE? I ASKED YOU FIRST! NO, **I** ASKED YOU FIRST!"

There was a moment of silence. Then…

"JINX!" Winter cried, and the two managed to twitch and cringe at the same time. "You both owe me chocolate!"

----------------------------------------

End 

(Read '**_Harry Potter and the Collided Worlds_**' by **Sokai**, story id 2502930)

That was supposed to be the original ending. Oh well…

Please check out my other fics: **_Harry Potter: Raven_**,**_ Sakura's Harem_**, **_Harry Potter: Keeper of the Dark Heart_**, **_Uzumaki Harry_**, **_W-I-T-C-H: Duelist Knights and the Crown of Light!_**, and**_ Larxene and the Millennium Ring._**

Please review, C&C welcome. Flames will be given to Lee to sneer at.

Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.


	3. Night in the House of Lee…

A/N: Pardon the mood, but I was reading **Silver Pard**'s **_Why Waist Length_ **as I wrote this, hence Harry's attitude. Check the fic out, it features the funniest Sephiroth ever!

----------------------------------------

Card Captor Harry: Hong Kong

by Shadow Crystal Mage

Chapter 3: Night in the House of Lee…

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does. I wish her well and covet her money. Card Captor Sakura belongs to CLAMP, not me. I covet their drawing skills. Both are used here without their owners' permission. I'm not doing this for money, so please don't sue me.

----------------------------------------

"Hey, Yuri-girl," Harry said, smirking in a _most_ Draco Malfoy way as green eyes met the hated red of his rival. "It's been a while. Kissed Fight lately?"

The two locked gazes, and for a moment, there was silence. Then…

"Potter, why are you dripping?" Lee asked.

"Harry?" Winter said, looking up and down at the clothes– the now-soaked clothes– she'd picked out for him. "What happened?"

"I fell into a well," Harry said, choosing to direct his answer towards Winter.

"_How_ did you fall into a well?" Winter asked incredulously.

"I lost my balance and gravity decided to assert itself."

"You were klutzy and fell," Lee said, allowing herself a superior look. It was Harry's turn to glare.

The dark haired, red eyed girl– what was her name?– said something to Lee, a salacious smile on her face. Lee whirled instantly, snapping off a rapid-fire reply in Mandarin and seeming to forget Harry's presence completely. The English-only speakers were naturally confused.

Syaoran leaned forward and whispered in Harry's ear. "Meilin asked her who the cutey– that's you– was, and Fei's telling her you're not good enough for her, are of questionable parentage, intelligence, and sexual orientation, and that you smell bad."

"Syaoran-kun!"

Syaoran smiled, moving around Harry, who was trying to muster up some indignation at the description (HE SMELLED FINE!). "Sakura-chan," he said, bracing himself as the honey-haired girl threw her arms around him and hung on to his neck. The tall brown-haired boy said something in snide tones, and Sakura glared at him, before letting go of Syaoran and stalking up to the boy as she berated him in Japanese. And the silent girl with the camera seemed intent on getting every second of it. Lee was still talking to her sister.

Harry blinked, not used to being ignored by his rival like this, much less being ignored in the middle of what was obviously a family circus– the silver-haired boy that reminded him of Winter and the girl with the camera both had an air not unlike he and the twins did when Ron and Hermione bickered over some small matter that didn't result in them not speaking to each other for days– so he turned to Winter, noting Mirror standing close by. "Where's Aoi?" he asked, not feeling up to 'feeling' for the sprite himself and trying to keep an eye on Lee.

Mirror nodded behind her, and only then did Harry reached out the faintest bit to pick up the reassuring sense of the Clow sprite. It was surprisingly well hidden, reminding him that, unless they were flaring like a star and about to do a 'Final Fantasy boss' on him, the Clow Cards were masters at hiding themselves from him. Or most people, for that matter.

"Let's sneak out of here while they're busy," Harry muttered, trying to be subtle as he took hold of Winter's arm and do just that, but she shook him off.

"We can't leave yet," Winter said. "Lee still hasn't told me where she lives so we can go visit!"

"Win', I'm wet, cold, and–" Harry was interrupted as he drew back his head and sneezed, fortunately managing to cover his mouth. He rubbed at his nose. "– catching a cold. And from the looks of it, Lee's probably–"

"Probably what, Potter?"

Slowly, Harry turned around to face his rival's raised eyebrow. "Probably going to get a sex-change."

Said eyebrow twitched as Winter giggled at the remark, probably thinking it was normal rival banter– and it was. It just wasn't as friendly as she thought.

Their glaring, however, was interrupted when Lee's sister suddenly pushed her out of the way, smiling brightly at Harry. "Hi cutey. I'm Meilin. What's your name?"

Harry drew back, not knowing how to respond to that. Behind him, he heard Mirror and Winter snicker. "Um, Harry. Harry Potter. Nice to meet you?" Okay, this was unexpected. He'd never thought he'd have a girl come on to him like this. He glanced at Lee out of the corner of his eye and saw she'd regained her balance and was glaring at him. There was something different about this glare, though. It wasn't her usual ' I hate your guts, wish you were dead so I could get the Key and Cards' glare.

"_Veerry_ nice to meet you too," Meilin said, and that's when the first shiver went through Harry's spine. Okay, the Clow Cards– just the girls, thankfully– kissing him in various ways against his will– well, without his permission, anyway– was one thing. Being propositioned by a girl was quite another. Meilin eyed his wet clothes, and Harry couldn't shake the feeling that she was trying to see underneath. "Why don't you come with us to our house. It's close by. You might catch cold if you stay in those wet things for long and I'm sure Syaoran will be willing to lend you something."

Harry had a bad feeling about this…

----------------------------------------

The first indicator that the fates were against Harry was when Winter quickly latched on to Meilin's suggestion and agreed that if their house was so close, it would be better if they went there and Syaoran lent Harry some clothes, since the hotel they were staying in was a bus trip away. Syaoran– drawn away from the sidelines of the fight between his girlfriend and her brother– was more than willing to lend Harry a couple of things.

The second indicator was when Fei caught sight of Aoi.

"And who is this?" she asked, looking down at the little figure curiously. Said little figure glared up at Fei, stuck his tongue at her, and scrambled to hide behind Winter.

"My little brother," Harry said dryly, trying to hide his anxiety.

"Really?" Fei said, matching his tone. "When did that happen?"

"There _is_ such a thing as adoption," he retorted, then sneezed hard, rubbing his nose.

However, Fei had fixed her gaze on Aoi, not blinking even as they started moving towards the Lee's house. That is, until Aoi had gotten annoyed, kicked her in the shin and accused her of being a shota-con pervert. The two other girls– Sakura and Tomoyo, Harry found out– went red at the accusation. Meilin and Mirror laughed, the other boys raised eyebrows, and Harry promised Aoi a lot of ice-cream. Fei's look turned into a glare, but her gaze didn't shift.

The third indicator was that, by the time Harry and company had reached the Lee's house, he was freezing and sneezing almost constantly. His first view of said house, by the way, was interrupted almost instantly by another monstrous sneeze in a series of monstrous sneezes. Thus, he was momentarily spared the sight of a house big enough to house at least half of Gryffindors.

It didn't last, however.

"Big house," Harry said, craning his head back just to see the third floor and trying not to sound impressed. "How often do you send out search parties?"

"About once a week," Syaoran said, his lips twitching slightly. "We'd let the dogs roam, but they make too much of a mess."

Harry found himself smiling. Despite his considerable resemblance to his cousin, the Card Captor _really_ liked the other boy.

…

Not in _that_ way, though.

"You're dripping on the driveway, Potter," the bane of his existence said as she blew past towards the door.

Harry glared at her retreating form. Oh, if looks could kill/torture/maim/eviscerate/draw-and-quarter/_Tsukuyomi_-three-days-of-stabbing/rip-out-organs…

"Potter, stop looking at my cousin's ass."

Harry whirled, red-faced enough to do Vernon Dursley proud as he glared at Syaoran, indignant at the suggestion that he… that **_HE_**…! **_UGH!_**

Syaoran snickered at the look on his face. "Come on. Dry clothes this way."

Harry looked over his shoulder, nodding to himself in approval at the way Mirror, Winter and Aoi were sticking together. The taller Clow Card was chatting pleasantly with the two older boys– Touya was the dark-haired one and Sakura's brother; the male disturbingly like Winter was Yukito– while Winter was talking to Sakura, Meilin and Tomoyo. Harry raised an eyebrow at the way Mirror's face was glowing. Of all the times to see a Clow Card blush, he didn't know the reason why! What if he could use it to at least get _her_ to back off?

Harry thought of how shameless the Cards were– sleeping with him, 'deep' kisses, tongue action before the age of fourteen– then shook his head. Probably wouldn't work.

"Hey, you coming?"

Harry turned back towards Syaoran. "Yeah, I'm coming."

The house was big as it looked outside, and Harry was careful not to drip on the carpet. Cleaning carpets was never fun; he knew _that_ from personal experience. Where it wasn't carpeted, it was wood; it went on like that all the way to the second floor.

Syaoran's room, Harry decided, was probably Aunt Petunia's idea of a boy's room. It was clean. Almost _fanatically_ clean! The bed looked like it had been made and measured with a ruler, the posters and pictures on the walls were perfectly level, you could see every square inch of the floor and the desk was clear. Heck, even the desktop of the computer had only the most minimal number of icons (although there were three rather telling files that read 'Games', 'Fanfics', and 'Sakura').

Syaoran handed him a canvas bag that reminded Harry of the laundry bag from their hotel, then went to the closet and began rummaging through it for all of two seconds before turning around and laying out some clothes on the bed. "Put the clothes in the bag. I'll be downstairs if you need me," Syaoran said, and he was out the door.

Time in, time out: a grand total of one minute, 23.7 seconds. Talk about efficient.

Harry smirked as he began undoing the catches that held the Clow Book to his back. Probably wanted to be with his girlfriend. Well, who could blame him?

Then Harry caught sight of the clothes on the bed as he unstrapped the deck holster and was forcefully reminded that this was a relation of his least favorite person he was dealing with…

Harry ran into Winter outside Syaoran's room. She had a preoccupied look on her face, and nearly bumped him as he exited the room, which, considering she wasn't reading or writing anything at the time, was cause for alarm.

"Hey, you okay?" Harry said, waving his hand in front of her eyes.

Winter blinked, coming back to the hear and now. She didn't seem to notice that Harry was looking a little embarrassed, which was nothing new. "Something very weird just happened to me…"

"Oh?" Harry said, trying to seem inconspicuous and wondering where the heck Syaoran was.

"I think Meilin was… coming on to me," Winter said, which immediately got Harry's full attention. "At least, _now_ I do."

Alarm bells rang in Harry's head. "What did she do?" he asked.

She shot him a look, but shrugged. "Well, we were just talking and she asked me if you were my boyfriend," (Harry tried not to react to that) "and when I said no, she seemed really glad. I thought she wanted to make a move on you."

"She already made a move on me," Harry pointed out.

"Yeah, but I thought she was looking for a sign she could be serious," Winter said. "Anyway, when I said you weren't, she started… um, getting really close, touching my shoulder and stuff."

Harry was painfully aware he was in a nosebleed-worthy situation.

"It was only when she started suggesting I come up to her room and check out her hard drive that I realized something was kind of wrong," she continued, "So I made an excuse to look for you. When I walked away, she…"

At this she paused, looking very embarrassed. Harry _really_ couldn't just leave it hanging there, now could he?

"She what?" he asked.

"She copped a feel," Winter said, turning very red.

Harry twitched, envisioning the scene perfectly. The urge to have a nosebleed was eclipsed by the need for a different kind of blood. "Where?"

Winter gave him a _look._ "Where else would someone cop a feel?" she said, pointing at her rear.

Jealousy immediately reared it's ugly head. "She groped your butt?" Harry managed to choke out. Fortunately for him, Winter seemed to take this as indignation on his part, which it partly was.

"Uh huh," Winter said, grimacing slightly. "I don't think anyone else saw, and I just wanted to get the heck out of there and went looking for you… _what on earth are you wearing?_"

Harry twitched. Okay, he'd forgotten about the clothes. Ranma-esque white pants– he knew they had a proper name but for the life of him he didn't know what– and a green Chinese shirt with gold trim were currently draped on him, since that had been what Syaoran had left on the bed. He'd have raided the closet– yes, he would sink that low– except for some reason, the closet door had _three different locks_ on it, not to mention even more spells.

Not that Winter would be interested in that. Instead, he just said, "Syaoran seems to have interesting tastes in clothes."

Fortunately for Harry, only Mirror was in the sitting room when Mirror finally led them back there. The Clow Card was looking around curiously, the way people do when they're in a new house. "Don't touch anything," he cautioned, earning him an indulgent look from Mirror and a rather condescending one from Winter, who was still trying not to smile at his clothes.

He was just about to sit down– it _was_ a sitting room, wasn't it?– when there was a sudden click accompanied by a flash of light. Ah, he'd been wondering when she'd pull out the digital camera and take a picture. My, those were certainly very interesting constellations…

"All right," Harry said as he rubbed his eyes, trying to clear the spots. "What do I need to do to keep that picture from going public once we get back to school?"

A giggle. "Who says there's anything you can do about it?"

"AAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The multiple shrieks nearly blew Harry's eardrums to go with his eyes. He leapt to his feet, hand going up towards his neck, but before he could use the Sealing Wand– heck, before he could bring the Key out–he was suddenly surrounded. Hands pawed his person, stroking his face, arms, shoulders–

"HEY!"

– and from the sound of it, he wasn't the only one getting ambushed.

He tried to struggle out of his captors' grip, but after a while, it sank in that he wasn't being attacked. _Molested_, possibly, but certainly not attacked. After all, few attackers squealed and said things like:

"Oh, she's so cute!"

"Is that Syaoran's shirt?"

"Look at her hair!"

"They make such a nice couple!"

The last temporarily derailed Harry's attempts to get his act together, and by the time he realized what was going on, he found himself standing next to Winter, who had a sheepish yet amused smile on her face as the two of them were repeatedly pawed. Mirror was standing at the farthest corner of the room, her back to the wall, looking like she wanted to laugh and be jealous at the same time.

"Affectionate, aren't they?" Winter said, as if talking about a puppy or a kitten.

"I'm getting a weird sense of _déjà vu,_" Harry muttered, eyeing them warily, as if they would suddenly take offense.

"Oh? How?"

"Clow Cards."

Winter raised an eyebrow, looking more amused, but didn't say anything about it. Harry tried not to shiver every time he was touched. You'd think a guy would like having five women groping at him, but after the Clow Cards, things like that lost their appeal slightly. The five all had brown hair and were obviously related, making them Lees. They certainly held a passing resemblance to Syaoran and the Slytherin he hated with every fiber of his being. In fact, they looked so distinctive that Harry wondered if Meilin was adopted. If she hadn't been introduced as Lee's twin sister…

That thought immediately reminded him, and he tried to keep them from groping his ass– or worse, Winter's!– turning so that both were inaccessible, but before he could, other people walked into the room.

"I see you've met my other cousins," Lee said dryly, a smirk on her face. Syaoran satisfied himself with a small smile before he set the tray of refreshments he was carrying down on the coffee table. Harry tried to glare a hole through his head. He'd thought they'd been getting along rather well. Before he could say or do anything, however, Lee– granted, there was a whole bunch of 'Lees' in the room alone, but to Harry, there was only one to whom it applied– took a closer look at him and laughed. "Nice outfit, Potter," she said.

Syaoran quirked an eyebrow at her as he nudge one of the little platters on the tray ever so slightly. "You know, you gave that to me for my birthday."

Lee smiled, something that Harry found _very_ creepy. "Did I? My apologies. I can't possibly imagine what I was thinking."

"I think it looks cute," Mirror said from across the room, and Harry leveled a glare at her, which didn't faze her one bit. He just wasn't going to get any respect at _all_ today, was he?

Trying to get the subject away from his clothes, he said, "Where's Aoi?"

Before anyone could answer, there was a loud squeal, followed almost immediately by another. Harry recognized one of the squeals as Aoi's but the other…

That was when the Clow Card bounced into the room, followed by someone else. _Literally_ bounced into the room. Harry stiffened as he _felt_ the Clow Cards– plural– bouncing around the room. It only lasted for a minute, before both Cards bounced out of the room.

Harry twitched.

Before he could try breaking out of the circle of girls and going after them, however, a stately woman entered the room. He noticed immediately for three reasons: first, the girls surrounding him and Winter suddenly stopped molesting them at her presence; second, Lee and Syaoran had stood at attention, the former looking self-conscious, the latter almost afraid; third, because Harry nearly freaked at the power he felt coming from her. With so few magical beings to drown out his senses– there were only himself, Winter, Mirror, Syaoran and Lee– he could quite clearly feel that this woman was a force to be reckoned with.

For a human, anyway.

"Fei," she said, by way of introduction, "your charge is loose again."

Lee pursed her lips, looking down. "Yes, auntie," she said deferentially, which certainly raised Harry's eyebrows. Fei, deferring to someone?

Any amused thoughts, however, were driven out completely when she looked his way. It was a disturbing mix of Professor McGonagall and Aunt Petunia, and caused him to straighten up and think of all the bad things he'd done. She regarded him and Winter coolly, and Harry almost missed the human shield that Lee's other cousins– Syaoran's sisters, perhaps?– made.

"You are the Card Captor?" she said, and panic wrenched at Harry's heart for a moment, before he nodded hesitantly. If she was anything like him and Lee, she'd probably already felt it. He really had to make a habit of feeling out for as far as possible at all times. He kept getting snuck up on!

"It is an honor to finally meet you, Card Captor," the woman continued. "I am Yelan Lee. Fei has spoken very highly of you. I believe that was your charge just now?"

Getting over surprise without reacting was hard, almost as hard as not staring at the Slytherin girl who was turning a bright shade. _She_ thought highly off _him_. Since when? He remembered to nod at the question, them mentally kicked himself as he finally found his voice. "Yes, Aoi is with me. I… suppose I should check on him before he does any damage," _to something other than the woodwork,_ Harry mentally appended, hearing a lot of bouncing around.

The woman nodded, making a small gesture that Harry supposed was acquiescence. Bowing slightly, because it felt right, he backed away, moving in a not-trying-to-hurry fashion towards the door.

"Fei," he heard her say, and he practically heard Lee stiffen. "Accompany your guest and retrieve your charge, then come back here."

Lee practically leapt towards Harry, also moving in that not-trying-to-hurry way and catching him at the door. The two broke into what was practically a run when they were out of sight, but not before Harry heard Lee's aunt say, "Please, sit. I've seldom spoken with a Clow Card besides Fei's charge…" the rest was lost as they moved out of range, following the happy sounds and bouncing around.

"Let me guess," Harry said as they moved. "Twin Card half?"

A curt nod. "The female. I'd promised to reunite her with her brother, but until I'd done all my homework, Aunt Yelan wouldn't let me return to England to look for him. It's unnecessary, now. You brought the other half straight to me."

"You are not getting this one," Harry growled, carefully cutting a corner so as not to hit a huge jar. Lee shouldered him out of the way, making him stubble back slightly and lose ground.

"Says you, Potter," Lee shot back. "In case you haven't noticed, I have the home field advantage. Literally."

The two entered a large room that seemed to be a dining room of some sort, and Harry finally caught sight of the Clow Cards– or is that 'Card', singular?– they'd been pursuing. Aoi was still wearing the outfit they'd bought him, although his cap had slipped off, revealing the hair he'd been named for. His sister, however, was wearing the same yellow jester outfit he'd been when Harry found him in his trunk, a small tuft of pink hair peaking out the front. Both were making very loud happy sounds as they bounced around holding hands, doing flips and seeming to bounce around in the air.

While very nice and all, the squeals were giving Harry a headache.

Lee obviously felt the same. "Pink! Get down here immediately!"

Harry raised an eyebrow at her. "_Pink?_"

"_Aoi?_" she shot back.

Both suddenly found themselves being tackle-hugged by an enthusiastic sprite each, yelling out their thanks in loud voices. Harry couldn't make out what Pink (what kind of a name was that?) was saying since it seemed to be in Mandarin, but Aoi's exclamations of joy and thankfulness was easy to understand.

Then someone walked in.

"Fei-san, wa– oh!" Sakura said as she, Meilin and Tomoyo rounded the door into the room. "Um, hello, Harry-san. What–oh," she paused again as she saw Aoi and Pink, not seeming to know what to say.

Tomoyo had no such compunctions. "Oh, there are two of them now! Is this Pink's brother, Fei-san?"

"Isn't that the Aoi kid?" Meilin said, throwing her two-cents in.

Harry blinked, then turned to Lee. "_Please_ don't tell me you've been letting _Pink,_" he said the name with revulsion, knowing the color was the source of all evil, "go around without so much as an excuse."

The glare she gave him for questioning her practically screamed, "**_YES!_**"

----------------------------------------

Harry returned to the sitting room feeling betrayed. Lee hadn't made any secret of Pink's existence from Tomoyo and Sakura (and Yukito and Touya too, apparently), quite truthfully stating she was a magical being. Heck, they even knew she and Syaoran could do magic! The only thing he thought they'd done right was swearing the four to secrecy, although what good that would do he had no idea. Didn't they believe in the Statute of Secrecy here in the east?

(He would later find that it wasn't as rigorously enforced there, as the 'air of mysticism' made people more willing to believe in magic, and the influx of magical girl anime made people more willing to keep it under wraps. There were also some cultural issues regarding trust and the given word, but those were the explanations he understood…)

"You told," Harry growled, glaring at his most hated person while holding Aoi's hand so the Clow Sprite and his sister wouldn't get it into their heads to act like pinballs. "I've had to lie to and avoid my friends about the cards and you just went and _told_ your cousin's _girlfriend!_" A pause. "No offense against you personally, Sakura-san."

"Um, none taken?"

A shrug. "It's not my fault you English are repressed and inbred both genetically and magically."

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?"

Lee wasn't given the chance to answer, as they both stopped at the door, staring at the sight before them. Mirror had apparently reverted to her true form, sitting across from Lee's aunt with Winter to one side and Syaoran's sister's on the other. Syaoran was sitting off to one side, obviously trying not to be noticed, looking up gratefully at their appearance. The women-folk– and Mirror certainly counted in this category– were apparently deep in conversation, or at least Mirror and Lee's aunt were. Syaoran's sisters seemed intent on admiring Mirror's cuteness and Winter was wondering if the Clow Card was capable of cosplay.

You could guess who was talking to whom.

"Ah, I see you've brought them back," Yelan said, looking up from her conversation with Mirror. From what Harry had been able to catch, they'd been talking about Clow Reed. "Pink has been most anxious to be reunited with her sibling, and I am sure her brother feels the same."

"Reunited? Does this mean there's going to be magic?" Tomoyo asked excitedly, her expression mirroring Sakura's Meilin tried to look bored, but wasn't very good at it.

"I am afraid we won't be able to allow you to videotape it, Daidoji-san, but I am sure you will be allowed to watch." She glanced at Harry. "If the Card Captor is willing?"

"Sure, why not?" Harry sighed.

"Ooh, goody!" Winter said, diving for her bag and pulling out a notebook, a pen and a tape recorder. "Haven't been to one of _these_ in a while!"

Trying to ignore the number of people watching– Kero had just stuck his head out of Aoi's bag, apparently finally getting over his motion sickness from all the bouncing– Harry looked at the two. "You two ready to go? And please, no tests or anything, I'm sure neither of us are in the mood, and this is too nice a house to destroy with the sheer chaos that usually comes with tests."

The two sprites looked at each other and shrugged. "Sure, why not?" Aoi said, grinning widely and hugging his sister. "I'm just glad to be back with my sister again!"

"And afterwards, the two of us can serve Mistress Lee together!" Pink said, and suddenly there was a sudden mood-shift in the room.

"But… I wanted to serve Master Harry…" Aoi said. The mood deepened.

Everyone could almost hear the 'crack' in the air as Harry and Lee locked eyes. "MINE!" they both chorused.

"Jinx! You both owe me chocolate!" Winter chirped. The two twitched.

"I see you two are still as in synch as you used to be," Kero observed wryly as he got out of the backpack.

"Oh, how cute!" Sakura said as she suddenly enfolded Kero in a hug. "What's your name?"

Kero managed to puff himself up. "I am Keroberos, Guardian of the Sun, Chooser of the Card Captor–"

"Biggest mouth and glutton Clow Reed ever made," Harry wryly threw in.

"Who doesn't know when to shut up and be quiet," Lee added, giving the plushie a withering look.

There was a tick as the two realized they'd been momentarily united over something, and went back to glaring.

"Um, Master? Lady?" Mirror ventured nervously, and the two looked at her. "Create suggests that perhaps you two should just let Lady Winter take this one, as a technically neutral third party."

The two blinked, then as one turned towards Winter.

She smiled brightly. "I can do it! And you can just borrow them from me if you need them or something."

The two still frowned. "What do you think?" Harry muttered.

"Well, it's not like she can use them," Lee replied. "Otherwise she'd have used Create to make another fanfic self-insert from hell."

"Probably a lemon this time."

The two shuddered in horror at the thought.

----------------------------------------

Once custody was agreed over, Meilin suggested the do whatever it was out in the backyard so they'd have more room. Harry was still reluctant to reveal top-secret magic in front of other's who really weren't (in his opinion) supposed to know, but he really had no choice now, did he? He made an attempt to get Kero to back him up, but Sakura had insidiously managed to hypnotize Kero to her side by offering him some candy. One bite and he was hooked.

Traitor. The secrecy had been _his_ idea from the start!

Still, he had to admit that the Lees had a very nice backyard. Considering he considered the Hogwart's greenhouses, Quidditch pitch and the Forbidden Forest _his_ backyard by virtue of the fact that he stayed more at Hogwarts than at Privet drive, that was saying something. It was wide and grassy, with one side ending in a cliff with a beautiful view of the city. A gazebo was built that jutted out slightly from said cliff, while a few trees lined the edges.

Standing in the middle of this nice backyard-ness, Harry was feeling stomach butterflies he usually only got before Quidditch matches. Considering this was technically the first time he did a Sealing with an audience, it was to be expected. Still, that didn't mean he had to like it. They'd somehow managed to pick up the two older boys on the way out, so they'd grown slightly, although the two boys did a good job of drawing the attention of Syaoran's sisters, diffusing the maximum amount of attention…

"Hurry up, Potter, we don't have all day!"

Harry glared at Lee, making up for all those times this summer he'd wanted to direct ill intent towards someone but hadn't been able to. The little Slytherin was grinning at him evilly, obviously savoring the public humiliation that was about to occur.

(This was partly one of the Harry's personal reasons for not telling his friends about him being a Card Captor, as he doubted he could live down them seeing a Sealing…)

Grumbling, Harry looked at the two Clow Sprites holding hands in front of him. Aoi had stripped of his disguise, appearing in all his yellow-and-blue glory, while his sister was in her yellow-and (shudder) pink. Nothing else to wait for, anything else but action would just be delaying…

With a sigh, Harry reached towards his neck, pulling out the Clow Key and trying to ignore Winter taking notes while at the same time dictating something into her tape recorder. Taking a last deep breath to swallow his pride, he dove in. "Key of power, show me your true form. I, the one to whom you are bound, command it. Release!"

Despite how he felt, he couldn't help but feel a little warm at the exclamations of awe and amazement from Sakura and her companions. He knew perfectly well that the 'wow'-s and the '_sugoi_'-s were for something he (technically) did as the ground under his feet lit up and the Key extended into the Wand.

"Nice going. Magical Boy Pretty Potter," Lee said at the end of it, and Harry went from proud to pound (ignoring the fact that, besides the experience in the Create Card's fic-world, he'd never physically fought anyone in his life. It was an instinctive primitive response). As in, wanting to pound someone, preferably a red-eyed piece of Slytherin Garbage…

"Ooh, that's a good one!" Winter gushed, and he just collapsed inside. She _liked_ the name? **_NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!_**

He looked down at the two Clow Cards. "This is how it's going to go," he said quietly. "I slam this down. You two go Card. And I don't have to say anything else. Agreed?"

The two nodded.

It was with vast relief that the two disappeared into a glowing rectangle that resolved itself into a painted section of cardstock (or whatever magical material it was that Clow Reed used to make their Card forms) that appeared to much 'oooh'-ing and 'aaahh'-ing from the girls who hadn't seen it before. Plucking the Card out of the air, he handed it to Winter, who took it gently and placed it inside the notebook, right next to The Create.

"You keep it in a _notebook?_" Harry said in horror, visions of what would happen if it were stolen dancing through is mind.

"Well, I don't have a special box for it like Lee does, and you have the original Clow Book. I'm still hunting for someplace to put it," she explained apologetically.

"I could get you a box like mine if you'd like," Lee offered as she appeared at the forefront of a bunch of girls gushing over Harry's magic.

"Really? That would be great!" Winter said, while Harry tried to fend off the advances of Lee's female relatives ("Um, I'm glad you liked it Meilin, but I really don't have much say in what it looks like…").

----------------------------------------

Winter was staying over for dinner. Granted, that meant Potter and the annoying plushie would be too, but Fei wanted to focus on the good part of things. And it was a very good thing that Winter was staying for dinner.

She wished she'd dressed nicer that day. If she'd known Winter would be coming… well, all right, most likely she'd be a nervous wreck. So maybe it was best she hadn't known.

She casually eased out the pendant she got on Christmas out of her shirt, annoyed that Potter had thought of it first. She became even more annoyed when she realized the green of the shirt he was wearing contrasted the red of the pendant better than her own red shirt and vest jacket. Taking her eyes of Gryffindor Trash– who seemed to be talking to Syaoran– she turned to Winter and tried to keep her blood pressure under control.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me they knew about magic!" Winter accused her, pouting cutely in a way that made it hard to take her seriously. "You let me go on and on about boarding school and not being allowed cellphones…"

"Well, we were in public," Fei said, shrugging one soldier, the indifferent-ish face she'd perfected over the year set and on. "I can't exactly talk about magic like that in public, loose secrecy laws or not."

Meanwhile, across the room, Harry had cornered Syaoran.

"Exactly what were you thinking when you gave me _these_?" Harry said, plucking at the shirt. "I thought the two of us were getting along."

Syaoran chuckled slightly. "Truthfully? I was getting even for Fei. I like pranking her too, but she _is_ family and all, plus she's my favorite cousin."

Harry frowned, but recalling certain pranks the twins had done in Ginny's defense, he though he got it. "Well, I guess I understand," he grumbled.

"No hard feelings, then?" Syaoran said.

"Well, all right…" A pause. "So, what kind of fanfics do you read?"

Syaoran blinked. "Oh, well, I've been reading these two authors, **Raijinkage the Writer-Sama** and **Tsuki no Tenshi**…"

----------------------------------------

In the end, it was all Meilin's fault. _She_ was the one who suggested they sleep over.

That, however, was only Harry's view. She seemed like a nice enough girl when she wasn't trying to put the moves on him, but the little goodwill he found it in himself to give her was suppressed by two very important factors: one, she was Lee's sister, and hence, highly suspect; second, she'd put the moves on _Winter_, and _that _was simply unacceptable!

However, the prospect of sleeping over at Lee's house seemed to cheer Winter up, and there was really nothing Harry could do about that. Besides, his inner accountant reminded him, he was technically here on _her_ ticket, and as such everything was really up to her. What choice did he have but to go along?

So they'd agreed to stay over. Kero had found himself being spoiled rotten by Sakura and Tomoyo, lying in the center of a circle of girls who fed him as they giggled about this and that. Lee was there too, sitting in the fringe next to Winter, something that made Harry twitch as he looked at them. Fortunately, Syaoran had challenged him to a few rounds on the PS2, so he was sufficiently distracted to only see her a few times. Every time he twitched, he accidentally pressed a button, either sending him to his doom with a mistimed move or netting him a win.

The first of the embarrassment began when, after getting changed (Syaoran had lent him clothes again, this time of the non-embarrassing variety), Mirror, still in her natural form and full from all the food, tried to follow him into his room.

"No Mirror, you are _not_ sleeping with me tonight," he said, forgetting there were people listening and how those words are usually interpreted by present society.

Winter, Lee, Meilin, Syoran, Tomoyo and Sakura, unfortunately, had been close by, on their way to _their _rooms, and had given him a lot of scandalized looks.

He gave the other girls a look. "It's complicated, but it's _not_ like _that_, all right? Mirror, if you want to sleep with someone, go with Winter. I'm sure she'll let you sleep on her bed."

"But Master Harry, I want to sleep with _you_" Mirror said, almost whining.

In his head, Harry cursed Clow Reed's existence.

"Winter. _Go_!" Harry ordered in a tone that brooked no argument, and Mirror, still pouting, sighed and turned to follow Winter to her room.

"Dare we ask?" he heard Lee say dryly as he closed to door behind him. He almost growled as he wished he'd slammed it shut instead.

Harry stared at the bed. For the first time since they'd gotten to Hong Kong, he was sleeping alone. Keroberos had gone with the girls (the implications of which were slightly disturbing). Mirror, well he'd sent her away, and let's not get started on Winter…

He realized he'd been standing there staring at the bed fearfully for the past few minutes, and why not? Weird dreams were not something he wanted to wake up to alone. Still, at least they were just dreams…

Just dreams…

He kept telling himself as he lay there trying and at the same time dreading to go to sleep…

----------------------------------------

The dream is always the same…

He's standing there, listening to water dripping, catching flickers of motion just out of the corner of his eye while hearing…

Clow Reed… 

This time, it was different. He stood atop a smooth void of blackness, and all around him was the dark. Somewhere in the darkness, he heard something drip, and the floor beneath his feet rippled. Harry's throat caught as he realized he seemed to be standing on water…

Wrenching his gaze from his feet, Harry tried not to look down or shift nervously as moments passed and water continued to drip, rippling what he was standing on. He stared blankly around, not really looking as he waited…

But for what?

Something white flickered in the edge of his vision, and he spun, only to see water lapping against the sides of a jagged stone pillar. He fought the urge to sigh, and wondered why. as he turned away, however, a stray thought went through his head…

_Jagged stone pillar…?_

He turned back towards it, frowning harder. There should have been no way he could see it in the darkness, and yet he could. It shouldn't be there, and yet… _how_ did he know it wasn't supposed to be there? How did one tell what was supposed to be there or not?

Flicker

He spun, but it was just more water… wait a minute…

_Flickers of white, just at the corner of his eye…_

"Birds," Harry whispered aloud, and was a bit surprised his voice didn't echo. The darkness seemed to swallow it whole, drawn into the gaping black oblivion… except it wasn't really…

As if his words summoned them, they were suddenly there in front of him, perched on rocks sticking out of the water

(_…the water he was standing on…_)

out of the water, their pure white forms slightly blurred, as if through a haze. They stared at him, their heads tilting from side to side. He hesitated, they slowly began to walk towards them, the water feeling like cold marble beneath his feet, never really warming up. Shapes began to appear out of the gloom, resolving themselves into more jagged stones and slim, broken pillars rising out of the ground

(…_water_…)

out of the ground, while farther away, while pillars rose to the ceiling (…_sky?…_) disappearing into blackness. He tried to ignore the patter his bare feet (…_why were they bare?…_) made as he walked, knowing only he had to get closer to _them_.

(…_but why?_…)

They fluttered away as he got closer, and he felt a surge of annoyance, but he continued to walk towards them, following them as they flitted from stone to ever-growing stone. Up ahead, he finally began to see light. He looked up.

The light shone down from a glass ceiling, small lines running from the supports that held up the panes. It rested lightly and broken and fallen stone, dancing atop the water the rippled at his every step, at every now-unheard drop of the still unseen drip.

And surrounded by that light, enfolded in a corona of brilliance, was a woman.

She floated in the air far above him, her long, flow clothes (…_robes? …dress?…_) billowing around her. Long, straight black hair fell from her back, waving ever so slightly. A wide, fan-shaped crest (…_headdress? …crown?…_) rested above her brow. The birds flew up to her, and Harry was almost not surprised when they both suddenly seemed to unfurl, becoming streaming lengths of cloth that floated around her, accentuating her divine image.

She stared at him now like a goddess pronouncing judgment and finding him unworthy as he joined her in the glow cast by the skylight. He could see more clearly now, could see the pillars behind her, some whole, some broken halfway, others just cracked. A bit of stone fell from one even as he watched, making the light and water dance. The reflected light played on her face, somehow swallowed into nothingness by the shadow she cast. Judgment, pronounced.

"You are not who I'm looking for," she said, but Harry heard her words differently, heard them as something he couldn't understand, but understood none the less. "Where is he?"

He blinked as he finally came to a stop in her shadow, looking up at her and almost blinded. "Who?"

The frown deepened ever so slightly. "Clow Reed," she said, and no matter what, he knew that name. "Where is Clow Reed?"

Harry blinked, instinctively steeping back, but his feet had nothing to stand on as he slipped into the water. The cold enfolded him and he let out a cry in surprise, losing precious air. He tried to kick, but his clothes seemed to drag at him, keeping him from doing as he wished. There was only gaping darkness at his feet, and images of monsters from the deep sprang to the fore, each terrifyingly real. Line of paleness danced into it, swallowed into it's nothingness. He pulled himself away from it, looking up and seeing light dancing, tantalizing close, a dark shadow blotting it's center…

His arm broke the surface and he was through, gasping for breath and spitting out water. The cold hit then as air made contact with his skin, and a shiver went through is entire body. A distant part of him remembered being rained on in a seal dungeon, being lost in a maze soaked, but that memory paled in it's warmth. His hands reached, trying to remember the lessons Winter had taught him not so long ago, how to balance himself, how to kick, how she shouldn't panic…

Involuntarily, a sob rose to his lips, his eyes pressed tight…

He was panicking, he knew, but he couldn't help it. he kicked and flailed and tried to stay above the water for what seemed like an eternity, trying to move, not knowing if he was, not opening his eye because it would confuse him more, a primal part of him waiting for the snap of jaws at his feet, the tentacles closing around him legs to pull him down where he would never be seen again…

Stone slammed against one flailing hand, but the pain was welcome. Very welcome. It gave him an anchor to latch on to, chase the demons away as he scrambled for purchase, kicking and crying as he tried to pull himself up on it. the rock scraped as his chest painfully, tearing his clothes as he slipped once, twice, before he could pull himself up and a bit over, his toes splayed wide beneath the water for purchase, one hand reaching for a higher hold…

The flow of white cloth came down almost daintily, but it wrapped around his arm like iron, his hand almost becoming numb as he was yanked off his hard-fought security, lifted into the air to face _her_. Light shone fully into his face now, making it harder to see her under the shadows. His free hand scrambled desperately at his captive arm, trying to pull free but it was useless…

"Where is he?" she demanded again, and Harry could heard the menace in her voice, so much like Voldemort's all those years ago yet not, it seemed to be missing something, but he didn't care he needed to get his arm loose…!

A ghost of a memory of something clamped on to this same arm, deep crimson and gold with the outline of a circle, made by a laughing girl…

Harry's hand reached for his neck, and he nearly cried as he realized nothing was there…

He did cry out as the band around his arm tightened and his arm _really_ went numb as _she_ demanded. "Where is he hiding? _Where is Clow Reed???_"

The through a haze of pain, and the burning in his right hand as it was deprived of like-giving blood, Harry saw the skylight. Many of the panes were gone, while a lot of those left were cracked and broken, incomplete. It seemed so far away, miles above his head, yet he could still see it just the same. There was another barrier between the broken skylight and the radiance shining down on them, too distant for him to make out…

He felt himself becoming as distant as the light even as the band tightened once more…

"_Clow Reed? Where is Clow Reed? Where…?_"

Darkness once more…

----------------------------------------

Harry's eyes shot open. He could see his arm raised above him, his long sleeves rippling ever so slightly from the breeze from the open window. It was burning and he shakily lowered it as he sat up, letting blood flow back into the appendage. What a dream…

Instinctively, he turned to the side, yearning for Mirror or Aoi, or even Kero, only to remember as he saw the empty bed that they weren't there. Aoi was with his sister now, safely tucked in Winter's notebook, while Mirror and Kero were sleeping elsewhere. They were all somewhere else and he was alone.

Alone…

The thought seemed to drain him slightly as he unconsciously felt for the Clow Key around his neck, sighing in relief when he felt it still there, then immediately chided himself. After all, it was only a dream…

Pain lanced across his chest and he instinctively put his hand on it, only for both his chest and his arm to flare. Gasping and trying not to, he looked down in horror as he saw the little pinpricks of blood on his clothes…

Quickly, he kicked his way off the bed, heading for the mirror in the corner, as he opened his shirt. Several small, red marks ran parallel across his chest, many bleeding. Disbelievingly, he pulled back his right sleeve.

Several red bands wrapped around his arm, as if something had squeezed it very tightly not so long ago.

He felt a burst of magic as he heard the lock click and whirled in time to see the door slowly open, a familiar presence– no, two– standing at the threshold.

"Come with us," Syaoran said, his face serious, the wand he'd used to unlock the door still held loosely in his hand. Harry's eyes flicked to his pillow, where his wand stuck half out from beneath, one corner of the Clow book visible. "Mother wants to speak with you." In the shadows at the other side of the door, Lee's crimson eye shone, what little light there was allowing Harry to make it out as she stood half behind the frame, still wearing what she had when Harry had last seen her.

Harry tried to draw reassurance from the feeling of the Key around his neck. "Let me get the Cards."

He did not want to be alone. Not tonight…

Not anymore…

----------------------------------------

– **To be continued…**

----------------------------------------

A/N: unlike my other fics, I still haven't made art for this. Frankly, I don't want to see Harry holding the birds-beak wand. Magical Boy Pretty Potter. I don't know whether to laugh or cry…

This is not Meilin bashing. Harry is just really biased against her because of what she did.

I hate deep water…

Please check out my fanart at my account, shadow-crystal-mage DOT deviantart DOT com.

Please review, C&C welcome.

Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.


	4. Into The Abyss

A/N: Man, this fic certainly took a while. I remember when I used to write one a week…

----------------------------------------

Card Captor Harry: Hong Kong

by Shadow Crystal Mage

Chapter 4: Into The Abyss…

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does. I wish her well and covet her money. Card Captor Sakura belongs to CLAMP, not me. I covet their drawing skills. Both are used here without their owners' permission. I'm not doing this for money, so please don't sue me.

----------------------------------------

"Good morning, Master Harry!" Mirror said as Harry stepped into dining room, bouncing off her seat. Harry was barely able to brace himself before he was enthusiastically hugged by the sprite, a blush rising to his cheeks as she pecked him on the cheek. Once upon a time, that kind of affection would have been a dream come true to him, but now… well, he didn't hate it, but now he realized there were some aspects of affection he hadn't been able to take into account.

Like the embarrassment factor.

Over at their end, Syaoran's sisters were 'ooh'-ing, 'ahh'-ing, 'coo'-ing and making every other cutesy sound he could think of as they watched Mirror greet him. Winter was smiling in amusement, one hand already scribbling in her notebook, The Create and Twin Cards sticking out of it's pages. A part of Harry immediately became paranoid of juice spills, even though it wouldn't really damage the Cards, just what Winter was writing–

Harry blinked, and idly contemplated starting a juice spill.

Sakura and Tomoyo were blushing at the display, while Meilin was looking at Mirror appraisingly. He did _not_ want to know what was going on in her head. Syaoran had raised an eyebrow before continuing to eat, while Touya and Yukito stared at him in surprise.

Harry noted two people not present at the table as he sat down and began serving himself. Apparently in deference to the Brits, the table was laden with familiar fair, waffles, pancakes, sausages, bacon, etc. While he was glad that Lee Yelan wasn't there– for some reason, he didn't want to lose any dignity in front of her– he was vaguely curious as to why his least favorite Slytherin wasn't present. Extending his magical senses, he managed to detect the familiar 'feel' of her coming from the general direction of the backyard, along with another…

"Does L–, um, your cousin train with Fight every morning?" Harry asked Syaoran.

He smiled slightly. "You can call her Fei when she's not here," he said. "And no, not really. She just started this morning. I think your presence is making her competitive."

Harry sniffed. "I'll be the first to admit she can kick the stuffing out of me. There's no competition _there_."

"True," Syaoran said. "But it's not like she can duel you with magic right now."

Harry shrugged. It was none of his business, although it was slightly gratifying to know he got this kind of reaction out of her.

He and Syaoran were talking about the latest Naruto fillers episodes when conversation was interrupted by a sweating Lee clad in a sweat suit entering the room with Fight in tow. Her sword was sheathed in her hand, and her wand was stuck behind her ear. A small packet of the ofuda she used hung at her waist.

Mirror waved to her sibling, who answered back with a short nod, before stiffly turning towards Lee. "Will that be all, Mistress?" Fight said, and Harry was struck by a feeling of déjà vu. This sounded very familiar…

Lee waved a hand distractedly, having just caught sight of Harry. "Yes, yes, you're dismissed Fight," she said, her eyes on Harry.

Harry felt a momentary thrill as he realized what was about to happen…

Lee opened her mouth to greet Harry with her first words of the day, but before she could, Fight literally tackled her to the ground, turning the surprised girl over on her back as she dropped her full weigh on top of her. The Slytherin girl barely had time to open her mouth in protest before Fight pressed their lips together as she gripped the other girl's head in both hands to prevent her from escaping as the Clow Card's legs began to dissolve…

Harry was smiling very widely when Lee finally managed to get herself off the floor, snatching Fight's Card out of the air with a growl, muttering something in Mandarin under her breath that Harry was fairly certain translated into something like "Every (BLEEP)-ing time…".

"Forget something, did we?" Harry said airily as Sakura, Tomoyo, Touya and Yukito stared and/or blushed some more. Winter was chuckling under her breath as she continued to write, while Mirror just smiled.

It was turning into a good morning…

----------------------------------------

Fei glared at her favorite cousin. Considering her selection, 'favorite' was only a logical choice. "Explain why we have to go with them again?"

Syaoran shrugged as he slipped his wand into the holster under the sleeve of his shirt. "Mother wants us to go with them." A sudden grin. "Besides, you know you want to be with your little girlfriend."

The glare became lethal. "What has Potter been telling you?" she growled.

"Hah! "Syaoran said, pointing at her. "I knew it! So, anything you want to tell me?"

Fei resisted the urge to pull at her hair. She settled for setting her glare to 'overkill'. "There's nothing to tell," she snapped, barely able to keep a blush from her face. Damn her cousin and his sneaky ways!

Syaoran just chuckled at her. "You know, you looked almost _exactly_ the way I did when I was in denial over Sakura..."

She scowled at him. Damn Syaoran!

----------------------------------------

Harry slipped the Clow Book into it's holster under his jacket, glad to be back in his clothes. That outfit of Syaoran's had made him feeling underdressed, it was so light. As he dressed, checking that the Key and his wand were within easy reach, his thoughts drifted back to last night...

_The wind blew cold over his skin as he stood in the center. He was essentially on a roofless gazebo, with low, thick railings on most sides. In front of him stood Lee Yelan, a fan in her hand, Lee and Syaoran to either side, both holding what Harry recognized as rashin boards..._

_Yelan held her fan out in front of her, eyes closed, and a circle of light came to life beneath Harry's feet..._

_She'd looked into his eyes..._

_"Watch yourself, Card Captor. Something seeks you..."_

In the light of day, Harry considered her words. "So what else is new...?"

Something always 'seeks' him. If it wasn't the memory of the man who killed his parents, it was his (innocent) convicted godfather, or a ton of Clow Cards just waiting to drop on his head. Except this time, it was apparently some spirit with a hang up over Clow Reed. The way it had been explained to him the night before, spirits were much more powerful than ghosts, and were actually very similar to the Clow Cards. Considering how hard the Clow Cards could fight back compared to Nearly-Headless Nick, Harry was naturally anxious. Visions of The Sand's Final Fantasy Boss-esque fighting methods flashed through his mind.

Yes, Harry was very anxious.

----------------------------------------

Winter gave her hair one last pass as she pulled the clothes she'd been wearing yesterday into place. It would have been nice to be able to go to their hotel to pick up new outfits, if only to get Harry into the habit of wearing good clothes, but the clothes they'd been wearing was still good, especially after a pass of _Scourgify_. Besides, Lee, Meilin and Syaoran were taking them on a tour of Hong Kong, and if it was going to be anything like the tours she'd been on with her aunt when she was little or the ones in the brochures, then they'd need plenty of time.

Picking up what had formerly been Aoi's backpack– she missed the little sprite already, even though he was technically with her right then, tucked into her notebook– now filled with his discarded clothes, she went off in search of Kero, who had last been sighted raiding the kitchen with Mirror, Sakura, Tomoyo, Meilin and Yukito. Knowing him, he should still be there…

She found them sitting at a table, the three girls watching Keroberos with a mix of amusement and horror, while Yukito smiled as he ate what appeared to be his third cup of pudding, compared to Kero's fifteenth, while next to him, Mirror was still nursing her third. From their mutual sugar binges in Hogwarts– when Harry was either doing homework, Quidditch or hanging out with his _other_ friends– Winter saw the remains of a rather subdued, almost leisurely eating spree for the little Sun Guardian.

"Hey, you all ready?" she asked as she waltzed in, bag on her back , digital camera around her neck, pens and papers– including her notebooks– in her waist pouch, wand in her pocket, and purse in hand. "We're supposed to be leaving soon. And how much did you feed Kero, exactly?"

"Um, a little?" Sakura said nervously, apparently very much aware of the surrounding debris.

"Kero, you'd better digest that quick," Winter said as she lay down her purse and opened the backpack. "Otherwise there's no way I'm carrying you on my back!"

"I couldn't help it!" Kero moaned as he finished off his latest conquest. He reached for another cup, only to have it intercepted by Tomoyo, earning her much of Winter's gratitude. "Harry doesn't feed me enough!"

"That's because you don't really need to eat and he's been on a regulated diet this summer," Winter retorted. "Besides, you were the one who ate most of the cakes at the hotel."

"Hoe... maybe we shouldn't have fed him?" Sakura ventured, but Winter waved away his concerns.

"It's all right," she said, looking at the Sun Guardian affectionately. "Not your fault Kero can be a pig."

"HEY!"

Winter just chuckled as she shoved snacks into the backpack, assisted by the girls. Kero quickly broke off protesting as he directed them to bring this or that, all the while sharing– stealing is too hard a term– Yukito's snacks. They were just stuffing the last of the cup pudding into it when Harry walked in, dressed as he had been yesterday.

"Oh no!" Harry said as he grabbed Kero from mid-air before he could dive into the backpack. "You are _not_ riding there! I won't have you eating on Winter's back and making a mess. You're coming with me!"

"I don't think he'd fit anyway," Winter said as se looked into the almost brimming backpack.

"We can fix that…" Kero said.

"Eating the contents doesn't count as fixing," Harry said.

"You're mean, Harry."

----------------------------------------

"And this is the blah blah blah drone drone drone…" Meilin blah droned as Harry, Winter, Mirror, Sakura, Tomoyo, Yukito and Touya trailed behind. You could practically _see_ the sweatdrops on the other girls' heads as they listened to the Chinese girl prattle on. Admittedly, she was a good tour guide and knew what she was talking about, but her enthusiasm could be a little… overwhelming. Harry wasn't really paying attention, intent on the double task of keeping Meilin away from Winter– he still hadn't forgotten her attempt yesterday– and keeping Meilin away from _him_– he still hadn't forgotten her attempt yesterday.

The fact the Kero wouldn't stop flitting around under his jacket didn't help.

"Would you settle down?" Harry hissed as he subtly did his best to keep the Sun Guardian still. "You're attracting attention!"

Keroberos just sulked, making Harry sigh and wonder whether Clow Reed had made him this annoying or had influenced him to be. Since he wasn't much of a Clow fan, he was betting on the latter. After all, look what he did to the Clow Cards…

Off to the side, he could see Syaoran smiling at Sakura apologetically at Meilin's enthusiasm, while Touya fumed behind them. lee was alternately smirking at her cousin and shooting furtive glances at Winter. Truth be told, truth be told, he was paying more attention to the internal politics than to Meilin's explanations of the sights. Between that, Kero and the 'tour' itself, he was successfully not thinking of last night's dream…

Wincing, Harry tried to divert his thoughts from dark water and spirits, but it was no use. Like a tune that just wouldn't go away, the dream echoed in his thoughts. His heart beat faster as he remembered the black, endless depths, the icy cold as he sank, the burning in his lungs and limbs as he strove blindly for the surface, the sting as he scraped himself on the stone…

"You okay, cutey?"

Harry blinked, realizing that they'd stopped. He looked around, finding that they'd stopped at a sort of market. All sorts of knickknacks were being sold at the stalls, from hair ornaments to little birds to toy guns– at least, Harry _hoped_ they were toy guns. His jacket was empty, Keroberos gone. How could he not have noticed? He felt for the 'little plushy's' presence, following it with his eyes to where Winter was browsing through DVDs– probably pirated, he though– and to the suspiciously moving bulge on her backpack. Well, at least he was safe…

He returned his focus to his questioner. Meilin was looking at him inquiringly, her smile showing her polite concern and betraying just a hint of flirtatiousness. She stood close to him, enough to intrude slightly on his personal face but not enough to warrant stepping back. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said, wondering how true it was. "Just thinking of a dream I had last night."

The flirtatiousness went up a couple of notches. "Was I in it?"

Harry twitched uncomfortably, his legs screaming at him to step back. "Um, no."

The smile became a full-blown grin– Harry felt a surge of déjà vu; he'd seen that grin before, but where?– and before he knew it, she was glomped securely on to his arm. "Well then, I'll have to change that."

She'd barely dragged him ten feet– his mind was still reeling– when a shudder went up his spine, letting him know he was being watched. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the reason why: Lee was glaring at him more intensely than he'd ever seen, her teeth grinding so hard he wouldn't be surprised if he chipped a tooth or something. Snape would have been proud. Meilin's persistent dragging swept him out of sight, allowing a chance to breath easily For a moment there, Lee had been scary!

"Is your sister always like that?" Harry said before he could stop himself, goose bumps still prickling his flesh.

Meilin looked over her shoulder, frowning slightly as she caught sight of Lee's expression before smiling widely and waving. "Here we go again," she muttered as she turned away. "She's like this every time I find a cute guy. When we were younger, she wouldn't let the boys at school get anywhere _near_ me. This has been the first year when I could actually talk to a guy without her breathing down my neck. Of course, by now no guy wants to have anything to do with me." This with an annoyed expression somewhere between a frown and a pout.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "So, what we're doing right now is really pissing her off?"

"Probably," Meilin answered.

Harry paused thoughtfully for a moment, weighing the factors. It kept her away from Winter, _and_ royally pissed of Lee…

Harry broke into a wide smile. He turned to Meilin, meeting her similar, albeit flirtatious rather than devious, expression. "Say, want some ice cream?" he said as he noticed a little stand off to the side. Kero had apparently already dragged Winter there, since she was moving towards a discreet corner holding two cones.

Meilin blinked in surprise at the unexpected proposal, before her previous expression returned, wider than ever. "Why the sudden change of heart?" she asked.

"Would you hate me if I said I wanted to **_really _**piss off your sister?" Harry said, crossing his fingers in both hands and his toes too.

Meilin laughed, a high-pitched, slightly annoying thing that probably took getting used to. "Oh, so _that's_ why you're being all nice to me now? I'd almost be hurt if I didn't have my own reasons. Yes, by all means, let's piss off my sister!"

On stranger things are alliances formed as Harry and Meilin proceeded to walk towards the confectionary arm in arm, laughing at their own joke and trying not to look back to see the expression on their victim.

----------------------------------------

Despite the rather devious nature of their new closeness, Harry was surprised to find himself enjoying himself as he and Meilin performed their little charade. Well, it was a charade on his part, as Meilin made it perfectly clear she was doing everything she could to land him. Still, as she couldn't take it beyond seductive looks, strokes on his arm, and pushing herself ever harder and longer against him, he wasn't really affected, able to pretend they were all an act for her sister's benefit. The whispers in his ear, however, he couldn't just dismiss, as he knew they were for no one's benefit but his.

Despite the whispers, he enjoyed himself, her lively nature a change from Lee's intensity, Mirror's naïveté, and Winter's almost bubbly lightness, if not exactly what he was used to. She was… _Slytherin_ was the closest thing that came to mind. Not Slytherin the way her sister was. Lee's Slytherin-ness consisted of her intensity, her ambition to gain the power of the Clow Cards and become the Card Mistress. Meilin qualification's lay outside the usual lines, more to do with determination and a certain disregard for rules than ambition and cunning. She was certainly very determined to get him to like her– he did, just probably not the way she wanted, whatever _that_ was– and there was probably _some_ kind of cosmic rule against consorting with your sister's rival just to piss her off.

Having nothing overtly romantic-seeming to do after the ice cream, they both used the opportunity to honestly try and get to know each other. A stall of anime paraphernalia revealed their mutual liking for **_Tsubasa Chronicle_**, and while Harry had to acknowledge the _possibility_ that Fay and Kurogane had a thing for each other (he firmly believed that the blond magician was better of with the other light and airy nut Yuuko), Meilin thankfully agreed with him on his theory that CEO Tomoyo might possibly have lesbian tendencies. Really, dressing a little girl up like that…?

Their plan seemed to be working. Lee's teeth grinding had gotten so bad Yukito had offered her some gum– about three sticks of it– to keep her from damaging anything. They'd garnered looks, confused from Sakura, knowing from Tomoyo, and amused from Syaoran. Harry had been half-expecting the other boy to take him to one side and ask if his intentions were honorable or something. He just gave off that vibe…

And Winter…?

"Just what exactly are you two doing?" she asked them as Meilin casually hung off Harry's arm. He'd been getting used to that all morning, and was just starting to admit that it felt pleasant, in a warm sort of way. That wasn't to say he wasn't disappointed not to hear a jealous tinge in the silver-haired Ravenclaw's voice. There was only concern, curiosity, and what Harry had learned to identify as the getting-ready-to-run-for-the-hills-if-it's-not-good tone.

"We're trying to piss off her sister," Harry explained. "Although _she's _trying to put the moves on me."

"Is it working?" Meilin asked. Harry was getting used to that smile too. It no longer creeped him out as much, although he _had_ recognized why he felt a sense of déjà vu: it was the _exact same_ smile the Clow Cards had before they latched themselves on to his face and proceeded to molest him. Well, the girls, anyway. He thanked his lucky stars the male ones didn't do it!

Harry pretended to think about that for a moment. "Well, I'm liking you, but in a 'partner-in-crime' sort of way."

Meilin chuckled and Harry suddenly jerked upright, barely choking off a yelp. "So I'm making progress. You'll fall for me soon. No one, man or woman, can resist my charms."

"Poison Ivy much?" Winter said dryly, moving away from the range of potentially wandering hands while Harry tried to glare through his blush. "Your charms might be irresistible, but groping people is still a turnoff."

"I only did it because Fei was watching," Meilin declared, feigning innocence and failing miserably, hand still on Harry's rear. Sure enough, she was and looking ready to kill.

"Right…" Winter drawled sarcastically, Keeping her derrière as far away as possible.

----------------------------------------

Some time later found Harry and Meilin at yet another stall. Harry was gazing at the model guns on display, while Meilin was craning her neck around the corner to the next booth and it's collection of hair ornaments.

"Go already," Harry said. His arm had started to go numb a little while ago. "Your sister's sulking with Winter– " a twitch at the hateful thought of the Slytherin with the Ravenclaw without him. Ah, the things he did to piss his rival off! "– so we can surgically ungraft ourselves for now."

Meilin smirked as she finally let go of him, then quickly darted in and planted a kiss on his cheek, dangerously close to his mouth. "I miss you already," she said seductively, before giggling and darting off. Harry blushed again, but finally allowed himself a sigh of relief.

"Aren't you two overdoing it a little?" a voice behind him said, and Harry whirled in surprise. He hadn't been paying attention to the location of anyone but Lee, allowing Syaoran to sneak up on him.

"Tell _her_ that," Harry said, eyeing the other boy warily. He didn't _look_ like he was going to go medieval on him…

Syaoran chuckled, idly plucking one of the guns on display and turning it over in his hands. "Yes, Meilin can be a little… _intense_. Although your encouraging isn't helping."

Harry shifted his attention to the gun, ready to step behind something. "That thing isn't loaded, is it?"

Syaoran smirked at him, but put the gun back where he got it. "Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to beat you up on Meilin's behalf… yet."

"Oh, good," Harry said dryly. "Because any self-defense I've got I purely magical overkill."

"You now, you really need to lighten up, relax, get a girlfriend or something, a hobby, anything to help you unwind," Syaoran said, watching as Sakura passed by and entered the same stall Meilin was in. Girlish giggles soon began to sound.

"I'd like a girlfriend, but unfortunately, she's a bit clueless. And I do so have a hobby. '**_Mahora Hearts_**' doesn't write itself, you know. Plus I've got Cards to Capture before they threaten people," Harry retorted.

"You know, that's the same thing that Fei said when I bought it up, right down to the girl being a bit clueless and– wait, did you say '**_Mahora Hearts_**'?" Syaoran suddenly broke off, staring at Harry.

"Did you say _she_ said the same thing?" Harry said at the same time, his head snapping towards the other boy at the mention of clueless-ness so fast there was nearly an audible 'click'.

The two stared at each other.

"'**_Mahora Hearts_**'?" Syaoran repeated.

"'Clueless'?" Harry said with him.

The two stared at each other some more.

"You write '**_Mahora Hearts_**'," Syaoran said slowly as he filled in the blanks.

"She's not going to give up, is she?" Harry growled. "Not on the Clow Cards and not on Winter!"

"How come you only update during the middle of the year?"

Harry blinked as the new question finally managed to break through his mind's tracks and register. "Um, well, I sort of have to use my cousin's computer without permission to type up and update my fics," Harry said. "And the rest of the year, I'm at Hogwarts, which really doesn't have any internet connections, so…" he shrugged.

Syaoran frowned at that. "Well, that sucks. I'll have to wait 'til next year for a new update?"

"It's not like I have my own computer," Harry said. "And even if I did, it wouldn't work at Hogwarts anyway."

Syaoran nodded thoughtfully, and was about to open his mouth to say something when he suddenly froze. Harry could almost swear his ears perked up. In the next moment, Syaoran was off into the next booth. Harry raised an eyebrow, confused and intrigued. He followed at a more sedate pace, wondering what had prompted the other boy to make like the Road Runner and all but disappear in a puff of dust.

He arrived in time to see Syaoran paying for a cherry blossom-shaped hair ornament under the gaze of an amused Meilin and a blushing Sakura. Harry smiled faintly at the cute little scene as he watched Syaoran give the decoration to his girlfriend, imagining Winter and himself in their place as he gave her a hairclip of her own…

In fact, he thought as something caught his eye, he had just the clip.

Thankful that the stall had their prices listed in a way he could understand, he took the ornament in hand. A crescent moon resting on a fluffy cloud, it lay comfortably in the palm of his hand. He flipped it over, eyeing the clip underneath and wondering just how it held hair in place. Not that he was willing to try and put it on _his_ hair…

"Ooh, is that for me?" Meilin said as she suddenly appeared by his side, glomping on to his just-recovered arm.

"Somehow, I don't think it suits you," Harry said dryly. "Pick one you want that fits you better."

She tilted her head, looking at him sideways. "That's for Moon, isn't it? Maybe I should get her one too. Might make putting the moves on her easier."

"_Don't you dare!_" Harry growled out. "Bad enough I have to go against your sister, even if Winter _is_ clueless about her. You're not getting your mitts on her too!"

"I didn't say anything about taking her from you," Meilin said slyly, before her voice turned seductive. "Ever heard of a threesome?"

As Harry became aware of the scandalized Sakura, the slightly-blushing-but-amused Syaoran, and the smirking stall keeper, he finally realized what exactly he'd done when he took up with Meilin.

He'd made a deal with the devil.

----------------------------------------

In the end, Harry bought more in that stall than he originally intended. At first, it was just something for Winter and one for Meilin to keep her happy. Then Mirror had dropped by, and Harry couldn't very well not get the Clow Card something, so he got her a pair of clips with mirrored disks on them…

Before he knew it, he had a bow-and-arrow-topped-with-a-heart clip for Arrow, matching black and white faux-pearl clips for Light and Dark, a set of rose-themed earrings, clips, bracelets and necklaces for Flower, and even a spiked choker for Shot (to make him look more badass). Dash and Jump got cute little bells, Sword got a decorative chain, the list went on…

Then Harry was reminded of everyone else back home– well, everyone he liked, anyway– so he got tot buying souvenirs for them too. Ron was easy; he just had to buy him lots of Duty-Free chocolate. He settled for getting Hermione– and Ginny, he added as an afterthought– hair ornaments, a star for the former and a comet for the latter, while the twins each got a woven finger-trap gag. It seemed appropriate…

Luckily for him, all this managed to fit in one plastic bag, even if it was a bit bulky, which he intended to drop off at the hotel at the first opportunity. Mirror offered to take it along with her– "You and Lady Meilin can't keep the act up if you're carrying anything," she said with a smirk– so he let her, watching her skip off with her new clips clashing spectacularly with her copied-from-him hair.

He was just about to relax and wander off when he felt Lee's presence, which he'd almost forgotten to watch for, steadily approaching. He almost winced, knowing without looking what she looked like

Pissed.

Granted, that _had_ been the general purpose, for hanging with Meilin, but he really didn't want her to get the chance to vent yet, especially not at _him_!

Quickly, he sought out the nearest familiar presences, hoping Winter or Meilin were nearby to dampen Lee's rage and prevent her from committing Harry-cide. Neither were close so he darted towards what might have been the next best thing.

"Hi," he greeted Sakura, Tomoyo and Yukito before turning towards the waiting attendant. "One chocolate, please."

Sakura; the biggest generator of '_feel happy, let's all be friends, for love and peace, aren't I just cute as a button, don't be violent_' vibes in all of Hong Kong, possibly in all the world. Yukito and Tomoyo; not only did they magnify Sakura's vibes, they accented it with their own light and breezy auras.

If there was a less likely ground zero for Lee to go off on, it was around them. That was the hope, anyway.

Still, he had to breathe a sigh of relief when he saw Lee darting into the stall he'd just left.

Harry, 3; Lee, 0.

Smirking to himself, Harry relaxed, politely answering Tomoyo and Yukito's overtures to small talk…

----------------------------------------

Fei fumed. She raged. She cursed Potter, wishing he be inflicted with hangnails, acne, dandruff and horrible body odor. She wished he acquired Neville Longbottom's Potion's skills while handling explosive substances.

How _dare_ he! How dare he corrupt and seduce Meilin1 how dare he lay his filthy hands on her pure, sweet, innocent, angelic little sister! Wasn't it enough he was trying to take Winter from her (granted, she hadn't made any moves on Winter yet since her brain always seemed to freeze up unless Potter was around to keep her sufficiently annoyed, but that's beside the point!), now he had to corrupt her maiden sibling to his wanton ways?

This was one of the reasons she'd been apprehensive about going to Hogwarts and so glad to get back home. All her life, she'd worked tirelessly to keep letches away from Meilin, trying to preserve her honor from those who would taint it. At school when they were younger, she'd been referred to as "Meilin's scary sister". Not that she'd cared. The important thing was to protect her sister…

At least, it had been…

Now she was torn. On the one hand, she had to inform Potter in no uncertain terms to GET HIS GRUBBY PAWS OFF HER SISTER! On the other, she had a chance to get to Winter since Potter was busy WITH HER SISTER!

Realizing she was toying with a hair ornament– a crescent moon on a fluffy cloud, no matter how impossible that was– she made up her mind. Her sister was more important… for now. She could always get to Winter later. Maybe she'd like a hair clip…?

----------------------------------------

Harry liked Sakura. She was nice, she was sweet (almost but not quite enough to be diabetic, and thus was still a healthy amount), and while tending to get easily flustered, was also very accepting. The fact the he could do magic didn't seem to faze her at all, although she did ask a lot of questions about it. he answered as best as he could, his replies vague and general in a token attempt to stick with the Statute of Secrecy. His biggest difficulty, and Sakura's biggest shock, was getting across the fact that to use magic, you had to go to school for seven years, the Clow Cards being an exception. It was surprising, how, um _user_-friendly the Cards were.

He just wished they weren't _so_ friendly.

Still, there was something about her that disturbed him, but it took him a while to recognize what it was. Sakura could do magic, he was sure. At least, she had the capability for it. that surprised him, since she seemed genuinely ignorant about it. didn't she know? Or didn't they send things like acceptance letters in Japan? Maybe they did, but at a later age…

_Or_, a sarcastic part of him whispered,_ maybe in Japan you had to wait for an invasion of the forces of darkness before you're found by a cute animal sidekick and told of your magic just before you have to fight an evil monster after going through a glittery transformation sequence involving implied nudity covered by lots of sparkles and a seeming energy form…_

That _would_ explain magical girl anime… educational videos… but what about boys…?

Shaking off such ridiculous thoughts– to his knowledge, he was the world's one and only (GAG!) magical boy– he resolved to ask Syaoran about it at a later date. If he was anything like his cousin, it would be impossible for him not to know that his girlfriend was a witch. Maybe he'd know what the deal with Touya was too. He didn't feel like Sakura did, but there was something… _different_… about him…

But that could wait 'til later. Right then, he was enjoying her company in a way that was completely new to him. It wasn't the way Hermione's company occasionally held scholastic-fanaticl intensity that degraded into her own brand of perversion (not that she'd ever really admit it), or the way Winter's company held romantic tension (at least, he liked to think so), or the way Lee's company was a bomb waiting to go and sometimes did explode. Sakura wasn't like that. Her company was… _enjoyable_. It was as if you absorbed the feel-good vibes she seemed to emit to feel on top of the world.

Harry wouldn't be surprised if she was very popular back home. Syaoran was a very lucky guy (and he probably knew it). If he didn't like Winter so much, he might be crazy enough to make a move on Sakura. As it was, he'd come to like her a lot. When one was around her, the world seemed to become perfect…

Yup, Syaoran was _very_ lucky…

Also, Harry absolutely _hated_ the way Fate seemed to like to mess with him.

Harry was nearly finished with his third cone– Sakura and Tomoyo had refused another round, but Yukito had taken him up on it; the two had wandered off, looking at more tourist traps– when he suddenly froze, a sickeningly strange-yet-familiar feeling washing over him. Almost involuntarily, he looked up… and shuddered.

Two white birds were perched on the crisscrossing wires above his head. His hand tightened on his cone as he quickly finished it off in a fit of nervous energy. Next to him, he heard Sakura gasp.

"White birds…" she murmured, just barely loud enough to head. His head snapped to look at her, and saw she was staring up as well. At the birds on the wires.

"Sakura…?" Harry said hesitantly, his eyes darting between the two. "What's wrong?"

She shook slightly, her gaze fastened above. "Every night, for the past few days, I've been having strange dreams. They're… never distinct, but I remember impressions… there was water everywhere… and it was very dark… and there were–"

"White birds," Harry interrupted softly, remembering ghosts of his own dreams. "And there's a voice calling for Clow Reed…"

Sakura stared at him in surprise. "And… last night…" she continued hesitantly. "There was… a lady… floating in the air…"

"She tried to drown me," Harry almost whispered, yet Sakura still heard.

Her eyes went wide. "Warry… what's going on?"

"I don't know," Harry answered, eyes narrowing as he turned his gaze back up. "I don't know…"

As if this were a cue, the birds took off, drifting lazily just ahead of them as if taunting them; _wouldn't you like to find out?_

The two exchanged look and, almost against their will, began to follow…

----------------------------------------

_They filled her field of vision, all-encompassing, as blinding as a midnight storm, their siren song even louder. Flitting before her, they flew tantalizingly, teasingly. She reached out he hand, trying to reach the ones that had been haunting her dreams. They were too far away, so she stepped closer… and closer…_

A hand grabbed her outstretched arm, and a voice called her name… "Sakura!"

Sakura was jolted back to reality, the voice crashing through her mind's black haze. Her arm was still before her, held in place by a firm but gentle grip. Harry was looking at her in concern, his grip releasing as their eyes met. Kero-chan, his cute little face set in a frown, hovered over the boy's shoulder. Confused, Sakura looked around, realizing that they weren't at the market anymore, with only a dim, vague recollection of how they got there. "Ano…?"

"I think we were in a trance," Harry said, glaring accusingly at the birds up ahead. "If it hadn't been for Kero noticing where were here going… I don't know what might have happened."

Shuddering, Sakura stared down the way they'd been going. The passage was narrow, little more than an alley. At the end was what looked like a store, old and never having gone through a prime. one after the other, the birds flitted through a window inside, suddenly lending the structure a slightly threatening air.

"They wasn't us to follow," Harry muttered at her side as he reached towards his neck, where she knew he kept the magic key he used. "Well, I wouldn't want to disappoint…"

A circle glowed momentarily beneath his feet as he said words softly under his breath, ending with an audible "Release!". The key glowed, morphing into a long red wand with a strange, bird-shaped beak. Sakura's lip twitched as she held back a smile. It wouldn't do to smile… Harry might get offended…

"It looks silly, doesn't it?" he said, sounding amused, and she couldn't hold it in anymore. She snickered.

Harry nodded sagely, agreeing with her reaction. "Yes, I've always thought it looked like something out of a magical girl anime. I'd think Clow Reed was gay if he wasn't obviously such a pervert."

"Master Clow was not a–! Well, that is to say…" Kero said, breaking off.

"Kero, I did a little research on Clow Reed at school," Harry said dryly. "He managed to get laid with every girl in his House and most of the girls in the other Houses, not to mention a few of his teachers, during his stay at Hogwarts. Apparently, no one above age thirteen was safe. If that doesn't make him a pervert, I don't know what does!"

Normally, Sakura would be blushing like crazy at all the talk about perverts and… such, but her mind had fastened on what facet of the conversation, thus sparing her the embarrassing details. "Clow Reed?" she said questioningly.

Harry frowned, before seeming to realize. "You don't know, do you? No, of course not. Clow Reed was the one who created this," he hefted the wand, "as well as Mirror, Aoi, Pink and the rest of the Clow Cards. In my dream, the lady was asking me where he was, even though he's been dead since the turn of the century."

"So… she doesn't know he's dead?" Sakura ventured.

"That's probably the case," Harry confirmed, before turning back down the alley. "Though why bug _me_ about it…" he grumbled as he began walking, Kero-chan trailing behind. Hesitantly, Sakura looked the other way, vaguely recognizing the view on the other end of the alley as leading to where they'd come from…

Turning, she followed Harry, her curiosity unfortunately also overriding her good sense.

She fell into step next to him as they cautiously approached the building. Up close, it didn't look so bad. Assorted large knickknacks were strewn outside the door, too big to be stolen, such as a stature of a Guardian Dog and a dragon. Inside, they could see it was filled with more of the same. In the window where the birds had entered, they could see a hole in the mesh screen.

Harry held the wand a bit like a bat, as if ready to swing it down on someone's head at the least provocation. Sakura thought that was a very strange way to hold a magic wand, until she remembered how Harry had– what had he called it?– Sealed Aoi and Pink the night before. If that was what he usually used the wand for, no wonder he held it like that. Briefly, she wondered what it would be like to hold it, be decided to save such things for later. Now was not the time.

"It looks closed," Sakura ventured as they finally approached the door.

Harry twisted the nod, and the door creaked open. "Guess not," he said, and they all entered single file.

The inside was even more cluttered that they'd seen through the window. A dusty sign Sakura could barely make out identified the place as an antique store. Harry nodded as she told him, eyes narrowed as he crept purposefully, looking around. Sakura searched for the birds, but they seemed to have vanished.

"Feel that Kero?" Harry murmured, and Kero-chan nodded with him.

"Yeah…" he said. "This magic… it seems familiar, somehow…"

Abruptly, Harry's head snapped to the side, and Sakura couldn't help but follow his gaze. To the left of what was apparently the front desk was a shallow alcove full of boxes and crates apparently containing scrolls and other ancient papers. The two stepped closer. A book rested on top of a pile of similar objects, jutting out from a full crate. It's painted cover seemed to fill their view…

Dimly, Sakura heard Kero-chan shouting at them, trying to pull them back only to be carelessly backhanded by Harry and sending him into a box full of scrolls. Dimly, she saw the book's cover, a well with a woman reclining against one of it's roof pillars. The woman seemed familiar as she turned to look at Harry and her, as they both reached for the book's cover. Dimly, she saw Kero try to keep the book closed as they broke the seal, only to be pulled off by Harry once more. Dimly, she heard the door slam open behind them as Syaoran called out. Dimly, she closed her eyes to keep from being blinded by the light of the book…

----------------------------------------

Harry jerked out of his trance as he found himself staring into an ominously dark, mirrored surface. He could hear Keroberos straining at his back, his shirt tugging uncomfortably against his neck as the Sun Guardian labored to keep him aloft. They were moving towards a group of strangely round rocks jutting out of the water, the wetness lapping at their sides, the low sounds seeming to die in the vast chamber.

Harry _knew_ it was vast. He'd been here before.

"Put me down, Kero," he said, tightening his grip on the Sealing Wand.

"Finally, your back," Kero managed to get out, sounding like his mouth was full of cotton. Or in this case, Harry's shirt. He maneuvered Harry towards a relatively level potion of the rocks, and Harry dropped down, crouching as he looked around.

"Where's Sakura?" he asked, his chest tightening in worry. If anything happened to her…

"I don't know," Kero said. "She was just gone!"

Oh, (BLEEP). Touya and Syaoran were going to kill him…

Abruptly, his eyes narrowed. "Feel that?" he said, looking toward the direction he'd felt the presence.

"Yeah…" Kero confirmed as thy both turned.

Floating not far away, beneath a bright light, surrounded by two floating rolls of cloth, her face shadowed in darkness, was the woman from Harry's dreams.

Their eyes seemed to meet, even from the distance, and Harry heard the words that had been haunting his dreams echo through the still, dead air.

"_Where is Clow Reed…?_"

----------------------------------------

**- To be continued...**

----------------------------------------

A/N: I think I'll stop there. Need to update _something_ this month, after all. Shorter than I'd like, but still better than nothing…

I like Sakura. She'd the only one who can use pink without succumbing to evil. Barbie is an accessory of corruption!

On a side note, lots of new fanart on the profile page. Special thanks to **BakaHammerGirl**!

----------------------------------------

OMAKE 

----------------------------------------

As if on cue, the birds suddenly took off, drifting lazily just ahead of them.

Harry turned to Sakura. "Is it just me, or did that reek of any number of anime, manga, movie and fanfic moments leading to something big and potentially unpleasant?"

"It reeked," Sakura agreed.

As one, the two turned around and ignored any more bird sightings while in Hong Kong. As for the dreams, illegal liquor took care of that.

----------------------------------------

END 

----------------------------------------

Please review, C&C welcome.

Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off. Merry Christmas!


	5. The Abyss

A/N: I remember when I used to churn out two a month…

_sigh…_

----------------------------------------

Card Captor Harry: Hong Kong

by Shadow Crystal Mage

Chapter 5: The Abyss

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does. I wish her well and covet her money. Card Captor Sakura belongs to CLAMP, not me. I covet their drawing skills. Both are used here without their owners' permission. I'm not doing this for money, so please don't sue me.

----------------------------------------

Winter noticed it first. For a girl who had a tendency to read, write, and occasionally draw while walking, leading to many near-falls off stairs and many more rough introductions into the surfaces of doors, she was strangely good at noticing things that others didn't. She seemed to be the only one who picked up on the existence of the Clow Cards at Hogwarts, for example (although given that she still hadn't picked up on Lee's crush on her, it probably balances out). Thus, she brought it up.

"Hey. Where'd Harry and Sakura go?" she asked idly, trying to lick the last of her ice-cream cone, before deciding to just bite through the waffle. Hmm, waffle-ly…

Next to her, Lee (Fei, to be specific) twitched. "He'd better not be trying anything with her. Bad enough he's been trying to seduce Meilin…" the rest degenerated into unintelligible mutters and grumblings, although Harry's last name popped up every so often. Winter's lip twitched into a small, discreet smile. She wondered at her best Slytherin friend's (her only Slytherin friend, really) nigh anime-esque ability to be completely blind when it came to her sister. She was certain the revelation that Meilin had tried to grope her twice and actually succeeded once during last night's activities would be a shocker to the girl. Well, either that or cause her to go on a "La la la, I can't hear you!" denial tirade…

She'd caught her groping Tomoyo a couple of times too, although for some reason, the indigo-haired girl hadn't seemed to mind…

Winter shook her head, deciding not to think about it as Yukito said, "I saw the two of them going into that alley together. Kero-chan was following them."

"Kero was out? In public?" Winter said, surprised that the Sun Guardian wasn't being more careful.

Suddenly, both Syaoran and Lee stiffened as Touya seemed to frown slightly, looking around like he was trying to pinpoint a noise.

"Was that– ?" Syaoran started to say, but it only took one growl from Lee to interrupt him and explain the situation.

"Potter." This with teeth bared almost into a snarl. Winter resisted the urge to sigh. Looks like Harry and Meilin's plan to piss-off Lee had worked too well…

The next moment, she was blinking and staring at Syaoran and Lee's retreating backs as she and the others ate their dust. "Hey, wait!" she called out, fumbling with the remains of her cone as she hurried after the nearly identical cousins. She heard footsteps behind her as the others rushed to do the same, confused as she was.

The two ignored her call, however, rushing into the alleyway that Yukito had indicated earlier. Winter hurried after them, wondering how they managed to be so darn fast. There was a burst of light in front of her, followed by a more muted flash. Something cold ran through the usually cheerful Ravenclaw as she saw Lee and Syaoran were now holding swords. Whatever was going on, it was serious enough to warrant the big guns…

She heard Touya mutter something behind her that sounded uncomplimentary– she thought she heard words "baka" and "gaki" there somewhere– as she reached for her won wand. The wood felt comfortingly cool under her hand as she reviewed the Disarming Spell Harry had taught her. She could hear the others behind her, Meilin yelling at her cousin and sister, demanding to know what was going on, Tomoyo trying to calm her down, Touya cursing under his breath, Yukito trying to calm _him_ down…

Only Mirror was silent, clutching the bag containing Harry's purchases for her siblings. Her copied features showed her worry. Winter never thought Harry's face could look so vulnerable…

She was about to ask the Clow Card what was wrong when Syaoran threw open the door of the building at the end of the alley (they were there already?) just as a burst of light shined through, the boy shouting Sakura's name. The light dimmed suddenly, and Winter peered through the entryway, into the shop insie.

The _empty_ shop inside.

"Hey, where's Harry?" Winter asked, looking around. She was sure…

The two sword-wielders exchanged looks, before cautiously entering, blades held guardedly before them…

----------------------------------------

Somewhere far away yet close at hand, Harry held the Sealing Wand before him, very conscious that the Cards were still in the Book on his back. His other wand was in one of the inner pockets of his jacket and of less use to him then the one already in his hands. Around him was nothing but dark pillars rising from the watery depths into the darker void above. Rough jagged stone broke the surface at spots, the nearly still water lapping gently at their sides. Keroberos hovered by his side, reassuring Harry that he wasn't in this alone. Not that they were really alone...

"Where's Sakura?" Harry demanded, hoping he wouldn't be crushed into a smear on a roll of cloth. Still, he wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing.

Before and above him, the woman that had appeared in his dreams the night before hovered. Two lengths of pristine white cloth hovered close to her, rippling and flowing around her arms and reaching upwards, waving to some unfelt breeze. Her clothing billowed around her, their bright shine a contrast to her shadowed face. The light shining down lit the water bellow her, sparkling against the rock on which Harry stood.

The woman ignored his question, her gaze boring into him. "Where is he? Where is Clow Reed? Where is your master? Do not deny it. You reek of his power, and you have with you his servant. Where is he? _Tell me?_"

"Servant–?" Kero squawked indignantly, but Harry interrupted him.

"I'm not telling you anything until I know Sakura's all right!" the Card Captor shot back. Situation or not, he did _not_ want to face Touya and Syaoran's wrath should anything happen to the girl while on his watch. He loosened his left hand's grip on the Wand, ready to grab for the Book at a moment's notice…

Kero seemed to notice his preparation, suddenly diving into his jacket. He felt the Sun Guardian tugging the Clow Book loose from it's harness, his efforts hampered by the need for subtlety, leaving Harry to confront the lady alone.

Joy.

She regarded him imperiously, a queen deciding on the life of a serf– no, an insect. He met her gaze, unconsciously tightening his grip again. A spirit, Lee Yelan had told him. More powerful than a mere ghost, they could be in the order of the Clow Cards. What spell would work against a being like that? The Full-Body Bind? The Leg Locker Curse? Somehow, Harry couldn't think of any way those spells could be anything be pathetic against the being before him. If it came to a fight– and Harry just _knew_, with the experience of someone who'd had to fight more times than he'd care to think about, that it _would_ come to a fight– then his only hope would rest with the Clow Cards.

"Very well," _she_ said abruptly, making a sharp gesture with her hand, the pale digits slashing like a knife. Wind suddenly whirled into existence next to her, spinning into a swirling sphere, an aerial curtain that reminded Harry of Windy's _rasengan_. As quickly as it appeared, the wind dided, a blue bubble appearing in it's wake. And within that bubble, vainly hammering at it's seemingly fragile walls with her fists, her eyes shining with fear and confusion…

"Sakura!" Harry called out in relief, not knowing if she could hear him but glad to see she was all right. He was off the hook! Touya and Syaoran wouldn't kill him– !

Then he remembered that she was still trapped in a bubble, he had no idea where they were, and no idea how to get back to the others.

– he hoped, was his amendment.

"Harry!" Sakura mouthed, banging harder against the walls of her prison. He could feel Kero redoubling his efforts. Two small snaps, and he felt the book come off his back.

"Hang on, Sakura!" he yelled, hoping she could understand. He turned to the spirit, doing his best to glare threateningly. "Let her go! She hasn't done anything to you!"

"She is of Clow Reed," was the answer. "She knows where he is!"

"No she doesn't!" Harry cried. 'Of Clow Reed'? What–? "Leave her alone!"

Her body stiffened, and Harry could almost _feel_ her unseen eyes narrowing. "Enough of this. _Where is Clow Reed?_"

Harry grit his teeth, hoping Kero would hurry up and open the Book–

He suddenly became aware of the Wand in his Hands. The _Sealing Wand_ in his hands. The _Clow Key_ turned _Sealing Wand_ in his hands.

Oh, (BLEEP).

This was going to be harder than he thought…

----------------------------------------

Fei tucked her wand back into her pocket as she turned back towards the book Syaoran was studying. Touya's yelling for his sister, while perectly understandable, had been getting on her nerves, plus it would have drawn attention. While the Statue of Secrecy was more lenient here compared to Britain, if they were too noticeable, they'd be in big trouble.

Ignoring the way the elder Kinomoto had split his death-glare between her and her cousin, Fei turned to Syaoran. "Well?" she said, watching as he prodded at the book with the tip of his _jian_. Although they were both equally talented, Syaoran had greater aptitude for the traditional eastern magical arts, while Fei was more gifted withwestern wand-based magic, which was why she let him take the lead in this instance. Simply put, he was better at it than her. Now, if it were a matter of Transfiguration…

"Help me here," Syaoran said, jerking Fei out of her thoughts. He was trying to pry the book open with his sword, but it wasn't budging. Which meant they probably had the right book, if the magical vibe coming off it wasn't enough to tell them. It was subtle but there and, to one used to feeling for Clow Cards in a magic-interference-rich environment, very obvious.

Carefully, they both lay their blades on two corners of the book, trying to use their combined force to get it open…

There was a bright flash and the two nearly fell as they stumbled back in surprise. They had enough time to hear he rush of water, to realize that the others were still with them, to finally consider that they might be in danger, before everything went dark…

Fei's last thought was, "This is all Potter's fault!"

----------------------------------------

"I don't know what you're talking about," Harry said, trying to buy time and hoping Kero could open the Book without the Key. "Clow Reed is gone."

"_Liar!_" she cried. Surprised Harry with her vehemence, and nearly making him fall into the water as he took an instinctive step back. "Clow Reed cannot be dead! He is too powerful to die! He is hiding himself from me. _Where is he?-!-?_"

"I told you, he's gone!" Harry snapped back.

"_Liar!_" she repeated, and Harry barely managed to react in time as his Seeker reflexes came forward, dodging to the side, batting away the spear of sloth that darted towards him, apparently aiming for his throat. There was a yelp as Kerobers fell out, followed by a small splash as he hit the water. Harry had no time to worry about him however, too busy trying not to lose his footing as he scrambled over the rocks, using his wand to both hit the rushing cloths away and to wildly fire off spells in an attempt to keep them back.

"Tell me where he is!" she cried, her hair and clothes flapping now, as if in a mildly strong breeze. Thick black locks waved in front of her face, shadowing her visage even more. The fan-like crest on her brow stood firm, looking like a ship in a sea of black serpents. Her eyes were as dark and hidden as ever, but Harry could feel the heat of their gaze on him.

"I've already told you!" Harry shot out, feeling like a broken record as he leapt up towards a jutting broken pillar, almost losing his balance before dropping down to a wider cluster of rocks. Spinning around, and jabbing the wand in the direction of the grasping cloths. "_Aguamenti!_"

A stream of water a thick as Harry's leg blasted out of the end of the Sealing Wand. Although Harry felt no recoil, the water was clearly moving at a high velocity as it nearly swept away the cloth, snapping both back before continuing to fly, forcefully smacking a pillar easily a hundred feet away.

_Whoa_, Harry thought.

The spirit drew her cloth back, flapping them in agitation. "If you will not speak, then perhaps your little friend here will."

Panic and, for the first time since this encounter began, anger gripped Harry as he realized what she meant. "Leave Sakura out of this!" he cried.

"Harry! Catch!"

Harry's Seeker instincts took over once more as he caught the spinning, dripping object Kero had thrown at him. The Clow Book was wet, but reassuringly solid in his hand. He could feel the Clow Cards, lying hidden beneath the covers, just waiting to be unleashed and express his rage. The Sealing Wand seemed to pulse in his hand, and almost instinctively, he tapped the wand against the lock.

_Click!_

The clasp fell open, and Harry snapped open the book, drawing out the Cards and stuffing the now-empty Book into the harness on his back. "Dash! Jump!"

Power filled his legs, and he ran, darting into the air as he drew another Card. "Sword!"

The Wand shifted in his hand, morphing into a slim, elegant blade, made for speed and skill. He held it easily, knowing the speed and skill were his. The cloths darted for him again, but he was prepared, now. The blade flickered through the air, parrying the seemingly indestructible bands…

"_Kashin Shourai!_"

"Firey! _Katon: Karyuuendan!_"

Twin burst of flame flashed over him, driving the seeking textile back. The Card Captor whirled, partly in relief, mostly in surprise. Two figures bounced from rock to rock towards him, near-twin apparitions with swords in hand. A flaming winged being flew after them, fire still dancing in his hands, flickering in time with his hair and pinions.

"Potter!" Lee growled.

"Sakura!" Syaoran cried.

Harry winced. Oh, he was in so much trouble…

"More of Clow Reed's blood," the spirit said, seeming to draw back and consider this. "Perhaps _they_ can tell me where he is…"

Harry spun back to face her… and gasped. Behind him, he heard Lee snarl something that was probably an invective.

Six bubbles had joined Sakura's each with a prisoner hammering at it's walls. Touya and Tomoyo were trying to reach Sakura, futilely trying to breach their cages. Yukito, Meilin, Winter and Mirror struggled to get out as well. Harry saw Winter drawing her wand, attempting to curse the bubble open. It's surface rippled with each hit, but held as the Ravenclaw girl sent spell after spell at it. Mirror seemed to be sending small blasts of light from her hands at it, but it was no more effective than Winter's attempts.

"Moon!" Lee cried.

"Winter! Mirror!" Harry yelled, before his teeth grit together and his lips pulled back into what was almost a snarl. He rounded on the spirit. "Let them go! They have nothing to do with this! Heck, _I_ have nothing to do with this! Leave us alone!"

"Tell me where Clow Reed is!" the spirit shot back.

"She's not listening, Potter," Lee said. "She's too obsessed over Clow Reed to be reasoned with."

"Why would anyone want to obsess over that pervert?" Harry muttered under his breath, before raising his voice. "So what do we do?"

"Get the others and leave," Syaoran said, looking towards Sakura's bubble.

"She'll try to stop us," Harry said.

"'Try' being the operating word. We stop her first. Firey, contain!" Lee ordered, pointing at the spirit. The Clow Card shot forth, flame rising around him as he flew towards the indicated target. The cloth shot forth once more, but he parried them back as he began to fly around her, once, twice, three times, more, again and again, leaving a growing trail of fire in his wake. Quickly, the inferno grew, rising into a spinning pillar and reminding Harry of an old Bible movie he'd once seen on TV at Mrs. Figg's.

"That'll hold her," Lee said in satisfaction and a trace of smugness. "Come on, let's get everyone out of here. Fly– "

There was a violent hissing that interrupted the girl in mid-cry as a jet of water suddenly pierced the side of the pillar of heat. Steam bean to rise as the liquid started to cut through the flaming vortex…

Quickly, Harry drew out his own Cards. "Windy! Sand!" he cried, giving in to an almost instinct as he slammed the point of the currently-Sworded Wand into the Cards the same way Lee did, releasing the two sprites in twin explosions of yellow and beige swirls. He pointed at the collapsing pillar. "You two! Back up Firey! Don't let her out!"

The two nodded, before launching themselves forward as hundred of yellow tendrils began to swirl around the elemental Card, carrying with it a dense cloud of grit. Sand had began to spin, silicon and quartz particles enshrouding her as she kicked up a storm, a dust devil beginning to form.

Harry ran, Jump and Dash almost letting him fly as he hopped from stone to stone almost without fear, Keroberos by his side, leaping towards those trapped. Lee _did_ fly, the seemingly angelic wings on her back outstretched, beating the air hard. Sword in hand, she looked like some kind of divine warrior. Syaoran hung beneath her, armed as well, his golden eyes glinting almost ferally as he let himself be carried aloft.

Windy joined Firey, fanny his flames, making them roar for the skies as they worked together to confine the obsessed spirit. Sand hung back, letting her mini-twisters be caught inside the raging inferno as she began to feed sand into the flames. The sand began to melt as they were caught by the heat, glowing white as Windy and Sand led them to the center of the vortex…

Harry fell, feeling his feet hit stone and not breaking, Jump's magic absorbing the energy of the impact, before kicking off again, the little push of his legs multiplied exponentially. He slashed upwards, tearing open Mirror's bubble. The Clow Card landed lightly on her feet, shifting the bag she was carrying enough to catch Winter, who Kero had barely managed to grab and slow.

"The two of you, get out of here!" Harry said as Syaoran freed Sakura, while Lee freed Meilin.

"And just how do they do _that_, genius?" Lee said sarcastically as she set her sister down, the _ofuda_ she'd used to blast the bubble apart in hand.

Harry frowned, realizing he was well into his limits. Even if Mirror really didn't require any of his concentration, directing Jump, Sword, Dash, Windy and Sand was taking it's toll on him. Dismissing Dash and Sword, but keeping their Cards ready, he took the only Card he had that could probably handle passengers. "Thunder Card!"

Windy, Firey and Sand continued their work, the latter sealing the spirit in her sand-turned-glass as the other two spun their construct, caging their prisoner in their firestorm…

Winter, Sakura, and Meilin quickly got on Thunder's back. Mirror paused only a second before handing Winter the bag of souvenirs she was holding and suddenly pouncing on Harry, pulling him in for a kiss and ignoring the girls' stares at the apparent twin-cest. She broke the kiss shortly as she pressed herself against him. "You'll need everything you've got to fight," she whispered, before giving him one last kiss as she dissolved into her Card form.

Harry, after over a year of such… experiences, managed to keep his shocked stiffening to a bare minimum of ten seconds. There was nothing to be done about the intense crimson, well-I-wasn't-expecting-_that_, face burning, I-wanna-become-a-hermit red agony, nearly full-body blush he had on. He glared at Lee and her sunny hah-let's-see-how-_you_-like-it face, Syaoran's and his raised, questioning eyebrow, Winter and her nearly-giggly amusement, Sakura and her wide-eyed shock, Meilin and her speculative, half-lidded expression that creeped him out slightly. "Not one word," he growled at them, pocketing Mirror's clip.

"Is she single?" Meilin asked, and Harry couldn't help but be reminded of Hermione in one of her more blatantly perverted moods. Lee's head snapped around at that, all smugness and superiority gone.

Before Harry could reply that there was _no way in **ANYWHERE**_ he'd let Meilin get anywhere near Mirror with that kind of thinking, Lee rounded on him. "What did you do to my sister, Potter?" she hissed as she got in his face, her voice pitched low into the gravelly end of the spectrum. Her red eyes looked positively demonic, and Harry became very much aware of the sword Lee had a shaking deathgrip on. He suddenly realized that the Sealing Wand in his hand was just a wand and that The Sword Card was in his pocket. Visions of being gutted filled his mind.

Lee continued, apparently oblivious of what was going through his head as she ranted, still in that low, hissing voice. "How dare you try and turn my innocent little sister to your perversions, Potter! I thought you where at least decent, but seducing a naïve girl like Meilin–!"

"**_WHAT?_**" Harry exclaimed, hardly daring to believe what he was hearing. She was– ! and thought that he– ! That Meilin was– ! He and her– ! She and him– ! That he was– !

His brain rebooted as he tried to process what she was accusing him of. If he understood correctly, then she thought _he_ was– ! Worse yet, she thought _Meilin_ was– !

No. Just… no. It was too ludicrous to think about.

A tall pillar of technically-volcanic glass rose from the water, surrounded by a howling yellow whirlwind. A roaring pillar of fire enfolded it, melting particles of sand from the dust devil beyond, he whirlwind taking the melted sand and adding it to the pillar. The water bubbled furiously below, steam rising and being swept away by the dust, wind and flame…

The water began to swirl…

Suddenly, Syaoran was _there_, pulling Lee off, mouth twisted in badly hidden amusement. "Okay, break it up! We still have to free the others."

"You open, I'll catch," Harry said, grateful for the out. Not waiting, he turned and ran towards the bubbles, his back half-expecting a sword to go through it. It was quite a relief not to feel one.

Twin cries of "_Raitei Shourai!_" were followed by streaking darts of lightining. Touya and yukito drew back as the lightning struck. The bubbles crackled and popped, and Harry managed to leap up in time to catch the silver-haired man while Kero caught Touya. The Card Captor put down his passenger, leaping again as Syaoran freed Tomoyo… who was busy working her video camera.

"Of, Sakura-chan, you look so cute riding like that!" Tomoyo said as Harry set her down, training her camera on Sakura sitting on Thunder.

Sakura's head dropped. "Hoe…" she sighed.

Syaoran sighed as well. "Daidouji-san, now is not the ti–"

**BOOM!**

Everyone jerked at the sound, in time to see Windy, Firey and sand be hurled away from their posts as a giant swirling column of water rose in their place. There was a thunderous crackling roar as a large crystalline shard fell with deceptive slowness, splashing into the water like an iceberg off a glacier.

"Is that ice?" Winter asked in awe.

"Glass," Harry said as he and Lee recovered the fallen Clow Cards, knowing thet they probably wouldn'y be of any use for a while. "Tomoyo, Meilin, Winter, get on Thunder! Kero, Lee, get Touya and Yukito! We've got to get out of here!"

Harry grabbed Syaoran, ignoring Lee's glare at being told what to do as she got a grip on Touya, leeting Fly take them to the air as Keroberos picked up Yukito with his teeth. Thunder carefully pushed off, almost overloaded by four girls, Yukito holding his mane to spare Kero from doing more than lifting him. Harry and Syaoran had the most difficutly, since they were the only one's who weren't flying, not to mention that neither of them were used to carrying or being carried. Harry never wished for his broom more.

"So," Harry said as he awkwardly carried Syaoran, leaping from jutting rock to toppled pillat to vertical stone as he struggled to keep up with the others. "which way is out?"

He ignored the sound of water roaring behind them, ignored the almost musical multiple cracking of sand-glass as they broke off, concentrating on leaping and not dropping Syaoran. He cursed Clow Reed, knowing that somehow, _somehow_, this was all his fault, and they were paying for it. Penciling this in with 'perversion', 'corrupting Clow Cards' and 'spawning Lee with his genes', he tried to conceive other grievances…

It suddenly became apparent to Harry that Syaoran had been silent for more than three seconds… and counting.

A feeling of dread filled him. "Syaoran,?" Harry prompted, praying, no matter how far-fetched I was, that he'd simply missed what Syaoran had said in the midst of his internal rant. "You, uh, _do_ know the way out, right?"

_Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes…!_

"No," Syaoran said with only the faintest hint of dejection, and Harry was hard-pressed to hold back the urge to wail.

He didn't get a chance, however, as a shockwave caught them from behind, sending them all tumbling though the air and into the water. Only Lee and Thunder were spared, even as the Clow Card's passengers were knocked off and dunked.

"CLOW REED!" the sprit cried, looking none the worse for wear after being coated and encased in molten-then-solid glass. The rolls of cloth seemed to flow around her arms, rippling with fury. Water churned beneath her, the once-calm surface beginning to break, as if in prelude to a storm.

Harry missed all this, however, too frightnened as primeval fears orverrode reason. The water slipped over his head, a violent silvery mirror shining above him. He had a deathgrip on the Sealing Wand as he struggled vainly for the surface. The water was colder than he remembered, binding him in it's icy embrace. He didn't dare look down, not wanting to see endless darkness. Visions of tentacles grabbing him and dragging him down to his death, of razor-sharp teeth tearing off his legs…

He felt someone grab him through his haze of fear and panic, and suddenly, Harry was gulping air. Sweet, blessed, double-lungfuls of air. Cold of a different kind struck his face, bringing him back to his senses enough for him to try and get himself to float, moving his limbs in the motions Winter had drummed into him so many days ago. He kicked his legs awkwardly, his feet feeling strange in his shoes. The one hand holding the Wand offset his balance. The grip on the back of his shirt loosened, causing Harry to sink a little, barely managing to keep his head above the water.

Harry turned around with difficulty. "Thanks," he told Syaoran. The other boy just nodded.

Suddenly, the water began to more, the current beginning to draw them back. Back to _her_.

"Get out of the water!" Lee cired as she folded up the camera Tomoyo had dropped in mid-air and putting it in her pocket. She spun, facing the spirit, sword in one hand, Cards in the other. "Fight Card! Arrow Card!"

Kero, meanwhile, was still spinning under the awkward load of the souvenirs he'd managed to save.

Those in the water struggled to head for the rocks even as the current began to move faster. Thunder swept down, careful to keep his power in check, and Harry was one of the first to grab his paws. Syaoran followed suit, as did Winter, Sakura, Touya and the others. Slowly, Thunder tugged them towards some rocks…

"_Raitei Shourai!_" Lee cried, golden streaks leading the way for Arrow's multiplying bolts. Cloth wove itself before the spirit, the lightning and arrows impacting harmlessly on it's surface.

It meant nothing to Fight, the sprite using it as leverage to flip over and kick the spirit. The spirit was knocked back, but before Fight could press her advantage, the cloth darted, grabbing her arms and tossing her through the air. She was twisting as soon as her arms were free, her feet catching the pillar she'd been thrown at and using it as a springboard back.

The spirit raised her arm and a blast of water erupted, striking Fight in mid-air and killing her momentum, sending her plummeting to the ground, even as the cloth once more shield her from Lee and Arrow's next attack…

Thunder nearly dragged them to the rocks where Keroberos was already settled, the bag of souvenirs nex tto him, whe nthe water suddenly exploded. The shock knocked the sprite out of the air, causing him to revert back to Card form. The others were just as bad off, the water suddenly rising, taking them back to the spirit. Sakura and Syaoran were the first to fall, the water swirling over them, obscuring them from view. A burst of power filled Harry's senses. The water swept away, revealing the two trapped in bubbles, slicing and slamming inside in a vain attempt to get free once more. Syaoran's bubble was more than half-filled with water, limiting the force of his blows as well as preventing him from using his elemental _ofuda_.

"Sakura!" "Syaoran!" were the twin cries from Touya, Meilin and Tomoyo, even as the wate began churning around all of them. Harry wasn't even able to cry out before water was all around him, binding him in it's icy grasp. He felt power surround him, and suddenly the water was gone, and he found himself looking out from inside a bubble. He struck his fists and the Sealing Wand against it, but it did as much good as kicking a stone wall– plenty of damage to your soft tissues and none at all to what you were hitting.

Fei swooped down, tucking The Fight Card back where she kept it as Arrow provided covering fire. Pulling out a pair of _ofuda_ from her stash, she slammed both onto the flat of her blade. Lightning and fire roared out, slamming into a wall of cloth. This let Fei get close, and she pulled the same maneuver Fight did, managing to kick the spirit herself. The cloth darted after her, but she twisted out of the way, moving up the way Fight couldn't, and the spirit was forced to leave her be as Arrow took advantage of her loss of cover to try and turn her into a pincushion.

A blast of water slammed into the sprite in retaliation, even as Lee tried to get another hit in. The spirit was prepared, however, bringing her arm up in defense even as the red-eyed girl put yet another _ofuda_ into play. "_Raitei, Shourai!_"

There was a blinding light and a crack of thunder as the two were thrown apart, just as Arrow was overwhelmed by the water…

"_Sword Card!_"

One wide, sweeping slash was all it took for Harry to pop his bubble. He landed lightly on his feet, Jump's power still in play, before jumping up to the nearest bubble, slashing it open with another audible 'pop'. Managing to catch Winter before she could fall all the way, he turned back to the others…

Fei knew she was in trouble the moment she felt the water all around her. It was rising at her from beneath, streaming tentacles of it sticking out of the water in a truly disturbing fashion, like jellyfish from hell. She twisted, the wings on her back struggling for leverage, but already her legs were caught, and the tip of one wing. There was a Card pressed against her hand, and she didn't need to look down to know it was Arrow.

She struggled, even as the a length of cloth tore her sword from her hand, even as the cold water rose up her waist, even as she knew it would be futile. She could see the bubbles, could see those inside them… and those who weren't. Potter, soaked to the skin, was standing on some rocks, Sword in hand, Moon beside him, the water causing her clothes to stick to her in… _interesting_ ways. The plushie was close by, next to a shopping bag…

There was no hope, she knew. Without her sword, there was no way she could escape from a bubble, and her wand might not be able to withstand the stresses of using her _ofuda_. Alone, with no support, Potter wouldn't last much longer. And Winter…

They had to escape. Somehow.

She told herself it was for Winter. Told herself it was so the silver-haired girl, with the easy laugh and oblivious nature, the only one in Hogwarts who had dared approach her as a friend, could escape. She told herself Potter was the only one who really knew how to fly, how it was only logical.

Yet, whatever she told herself, the order she gave Fly as the water began to cover her face and began to ooze over her back was pretty basic.

_Go to him and get them out of here. Get **her** out of here…_

If only Potter could keep Winter from this, than everything in her power was his…

----------------------------------------

The streak of light burst of Lee's back, arcing through the air in a long, glowing line before slamming into Harry. he stumbled back slightly in surprise, even as he felt an unfamiliar weight of his back, and an unfamiliar presence in his mind. He knew what it was. He felt something like it even now, coming from the blade he held. It was a Clow Card.

_We must go,_ came the thought, almost audible. _The mistress bids us flee. We must leave this place, for there is no hope…_

He heard Winter gasp next to him, even as a strange wind began to blow. Something white and glowing slightly entered the edges of his field of vision.

"Harry…" she said softly.

He stared across the rocks and water to Lee's form, now in it's own half-filled bubble, slamming her fists even as she tried to blast her way out with her wand. Their eyes met for an instant, and the glare she gave him was unmistakable, as were the words she mouthed: _Get out of here, you idiot!_

_There is no hope…_

Grabbing Winter, Harry flew…

----------------------------------------

They'd headed for the light, after grabbing Keroberos. Later he'd said that the reason he'd told them to go that was because it was as far away from the dark as they could get, because darkness meant evil and this spirit was obviously evil, yadda yadda yadda. Harry thought it was because he thought the light was the sun. Winter might have said something about it making sense, since there was always 'light at the end of the tunnel'. Keroberos then stated that it made sense the spirit was close to the light, since it meant she was guarding the way out…

They hadn't been able to just fly out, although that's how it seemed. The water had followed them, rising out from bellow at a speed that should have made them disintegrate to drops. Harry had pushed everything he could, he and Winter blasting at the water in an attempt to hold them back, all the way until the light took them…

They'd come out at the shop. Of course. Where else would they appear? The book had flapped uselessly behind them, and Harry could tell they wouldn't have to worry about her coming after them that way. It felt empty now, plain. Even without touching it, he it was just a book…

They'd run out of the shop as fast as there feet could take them, Harry's wings knocking over some stuff before they retracted and a Card appeared, almost reluctantly, before him. He'd had Winter grab it. It felt… _wrong_, somehow, taking The Fly Card…

Anyway, they ran. Their shoes squished water, the air was cold, and after a while their feet hurt, but they ran, and they didn't stop running until they got to their hotel. It must have been a strange scene, to be sure, two completely wet children, one carrying a toy sword, the other a bag and a plushie, waiting for an elevator as they panted, catching their breaths. Thankfully, no one approached them. Harry wasn't sure what he'd do if some bellboy had walked up to them and started poking. Even worse if someone realized the 'toy sword' wasn't a toy at all.

Harry had plopped down on the bed, The Sword dropping from his numb fingers and reverting back to the Sealing Wand, The Sword Card settling next to it. He felt the bed move as Winter dropped down next to him, felt Kero lie down on his back. Winter was still panting…

It seemed an eternity later before someone spoke.

"What now?"

----------------------------------------

Somewhere far away, a young man opened his eyes.

"Be strong, my heir."

----------------------------------------

**- To be continued...**

----------------------------------------

A/N: Ugh, I'm tired…

BTW, I have new Winter Moon fanart I my devART account…

Please review, C&C welcome.

Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.


	6. Final Battle

A/N: And now, the second-to-last chapter!

Sorry it's been so long. No inspiration has been forthcoming. I had to watch the movie while I was writing this just to get ideas. College sucks.

On a side note, I would like to ask anyone Gaia Online Players to please join the _**Maho Negima RP **_Guild, as we do not have enough people! Do you realize how boring an RP with only five people at most is?

----------------------------------------

Card Captor Harry: Hong Kong

by Shadow Crystal Mage

Chapter 6: Final Battle

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does. I wish her well and covet her money. Card Captor Sakura belongs to CLAMP, not me. I covet their drawing skills. Both are used here without their owners' permission. I'm not doing this for money, so please don't sue me.

----------------------------------------

"What now?"

Harry sighed, opening his eyes. He could feel the stain on the bed caused by his wet clothes. It looked like they'd be flipping mattresses tonight– if they ever went to sleep, that is. "Do we really have to do anything?" Harry whined, trying to stall the inevitable. He knew they'd have to– more specifically, he knew _he'd_ have to– but that didn't mean he had to like it, or do it right away.

WHACK!

"AW!" Harry cried as Winter slapped the back of his head, glaring at him. "I was kidding!"

"I wasn't," she said, still glaring.

Harry sighed. "Can no one take a joke anymore?" he muttered, getting to his feet. Heading for the closet, he started pulling out some clothes.

"What are you doing?" Winter asked, her glare going from annoyed to curious.

"Getting ready to take a shower," Harry said as he carefully rolled back his sleeves and held the new clothes so they wouldn't get wet. "You should too. If we get sick, no one's going to be able to do any rescuing."

Winter pursed her lips, but nodded as Harry left to room to use the other shower and give Winter her privacy…

… only to come traipsing back and snagging Kero. Hey, the little plushy was a guy too.

----------------------------------------

A quick shower and a change of clothes later, Harry, Winter and Kero sat on the sofa, pondering.

"That book…" Harry muttered. "That book was the only lead we had on the woman and it's useless now. How are we supposed to get at her again?"

"Who _was _she, anyway?" Winter asked, echoing Harry's own thoughts. "Why'd she go and attack Harry and Sakura like that?"

"And why was she obsessed with Clow Reed?" Harry added, turning to Kero. "She recognized you, so she must have been during your time. Anyone Clow knew?" Harry frowned as a thought occurred to him. "She wasn't some girl he slept with and never called back was she?"

"Of course not!" Kero protested. "Master Clow always managed to get several days out of it."

"Oh, that's good," Harry said sarcastically. "Well, at least we know we're not getting killed over a one night stand. 'Death By Clow Reed's Love Life' would be a sucky way to go."

Keroberos opened his mouth, probably about to say something to defend his former master, than paused, a thoughtful look in his eye. "Hmm…" the little Sun Guardian murmured.

Harry and Winter stared at him. "It _is_ a case of 'Death By Clow Reed's Love Life', isn't it?" Winter said.

Kero gulped. "I… _think_ I remember who that was…"

Harry's eyes narrowed. "Who?"

----------------------------------------

_Su Yung_, Harry thought as he looked at the old, dilapidated well standing abandoned in the middle of the shadowed courtyard– if you could even call the space that. _The Madoushi. Somehow, knowing the name of the person we're up against isn't as significant as knowing that THIS IS DEFINITELY ALL CLOW REED'S FAULT!_

It was just like the inconsiderate, perverted sorcerer to make a mess and require Harry to clean it up nearly a century later.

"_I remember her now," Keroberos said thoughtfully, his back to the window and the setting sun. "A long time ago, she was a fortune-teller here in Honk Kong. A water fortune-teller, I believe. She would make various things appear on the water's surface and she was very good at it, but…"_

"_But?" Harry prompted, feeling he had a pretty good idea where this was leading._

"_One day, Clow Reed showed up," Kero said._

_That was all the prompting Harry needed. _

"_I KNEW IT! I KNEW THIS WAS ALL THAT IDIOTS FAULT SOMEHOW!"_

_Winter tried to shush him, looking at the walls nervously. This was a hotel room after all. Fortunately, there was no answering knocking on the walls that indicated annoyed neighbors. _

_Eventually, Harry settled down, glaring at Kero– or perhaps a point past Kero that contained an imaginary face– as the Sun Guardian continued his story._

"_Clow Reed wasn't really a fortune-teller," he said. "But the readings he gave during his leisure time were very accurate. Because of this, her business took a dive."_

"_Well, why wouldn't it," Harry muttered. "Someone comes in charging nothing but getting even better results, how does that __**not**__ affect business?"_

"_Yeah, well, after that, she started challenging Clow Reed to duels every chance she got," Kero continued. _

_Winter frowned thoughtfully. "But what is she doing here and now? I mean, wasn't this like a hundred years ago?"_

"_Magic," Keroberos said grimly. "Apparently, after she died, she transferred her hatred into that book. Things like that are extremely difficult magic. To make it last for so long must have required an enormous effort of will on her part. Well, either that or she completely sealed her soul into it. She might not even realize she's dead. She must __**really**__ have hated Clow."_

"_Who could blame her?" Harry said, turning the words over in his mind. "What could she have been planning to do with something like that?"_

"_She must have wanted to trap Clow inside the book as an act of revenge," Kero postulated. "There must have been some sort of subtle summoning spell on it, to try and draw Clow to it."_

"_But it attracted Harry instead," Winter pointed out. "Could that be because he has the Clow Cards?"_

"_That doesn't explain why it drew Sakura as well," Harry interjected. "From what she's told me, we've been having the same dreams about her for roughly about the same time."_

_The other two looked startled at this revelation. _

"_Could she be somehow related to Clow Reed as well?" Winter asked. "It's possible, if how much Clow… got around… is any indicator?"_

"_Then why weren't the Lee's affected?" Harry asked. "We __**know**__ they're related to Clow Reed, but nothing happened to them."_

_For a moment, the three sat in silence, pondering. Then…_

"_Look, it doesn't matter why," Harry said. "What matters is how we're going to get them out? Sakura and her friends don't deserve to get caught up in this. Heck __**we**__ don't deserve to get caught up in this. What can we do?"_

_Kero tapped his chin thoughtfully. "A place like that has to have an entrance somewhere. It's a parasite universe, which means it has to be anchored to this one to exist. But there was nothing at the store. At least, not any more…"_

"_And the book's gone too," Winter reminded them._

"_The book…" Harry mused aloud. The book, the concept of it, was quite frankly creeping the heck out of him. It had been specifically designed as a weapon to catch Clow Reed with, a trap for an unwary target…_

_Harry's eyes widened in horror as he remembered what it reminded him of._

_Tom Riddle's diary._

_There were differences of course. The diary had been designed to let something– two somethings, technically– __**out**__, while __**this**__ book had been made to trap someone __**in**__. yet the similarities…_

_Riddle had been so insidious with his book, trying to draw Harry in. There had been no dreams, no sudden trances. He'd been simpler than that. He'd hooked Harry's curiosity. He'd practically __**bragged**_

_Harry thought of what he could remember of the book. It was hazily remembered through his trance, but he could picture it a little. The woman hadn't bragged. She'd been very direct and single-minded, and that left no room for bragging. He had no idea where…_

The cover of the book floated before his eyes…

_Harry blinked. _

_No. He __**did**__ have an idea where…_

"_I know where she is," Harry gasped, hardly daring to breathe, lest it make the possibility puff away. "I was there yesterday…"_

And here they were, several hours later. High above them hung a crescent moon, shining down the pathway to the sky above.

They hadn't gone right away. Once upon a time, Harry would have, but the shrieking shack and the Time Turner had taught him a lesson: _**never**_ go in without a plan if you had time to make one.

For one thing, Winter had insisted he dress right for this. There was going to be a lot of water, she pointed out, and it was likely he'll fall into it. Fighting cold and wet and possibly risking hypothermia was something he didn't need to worry about. She had him run down to the nearest mall to find a sporting goods store so he could by a warm wetsuit and a pair of goggles that wouldn't fog up. Upon further consideration, she also told him to buy a shark-knife if he could, as well as some tight wristbands.

Surprisingly, he managed to find everything she'd sent her out for, including the shark-knife, though he wondered why they were willing to sell it to him. He was under-aged, after all, and there weren't any sharks around, except for the ones who were trying to sell him stuff.

When he got back, Winter was casting the finishing touches on a long-sleeved sweater and a pair of pants.

"_Impervious_," she said as she finished up the spell. "It's not much, since I don't know a _proper_ spell to water-proof your clothes, but given how I've layered it on every square inch of these tings, it should do. Hopefully the water'll stay out and keep you warm. Put on the wetsuit and hand me those wrist bands."

In short order, Harry was wearing the warm wetsuit under the clothes Winter had treated. The sleeves and legs had been pinched shut with the wristbands, to keep water out in the most low-tech way possible. The knife was strapped onto his left bicep.

"A bit hot and tight," Harry said as he examined himself in the mirror. "But I'll probably appreciate it down there. There's something else I want you to try and waterproof…"

He opened his trunk and pulled out the Firebolt.

"But Harry," a surprised Winter said as he handed it to her. "Don't you have The Fly Card?"

"Yeah," Harry nodded, "But I wouldn't feel right using it."

It had been an… enjoyable experience, flying to the well with Winter sitting behind him and holding on tight. He wished it was under more pleasant circumstances.

And now they were there, and the time was now…

The place was as rundown as Harry remembered it, and even darker than before. He could _feel_ it now. There was a sort of electricity in the air. How had he missed it the first time he was here? Or maybe it hadn't been around, then. After all, the power of the book must have gone somewhere…

"This is definitely it!" Kero said as they dismounted from the Firebolt. "You can _feel _themagic in the air!"

"Yeah," Harry said as Winter shivered, rubbing her arms like she had goose-bumps. He adjusted the card holster on his arm. It felt a little weird wearing it _over_ clothes…

Harry moved closer to the well, Sealing Wand in hand. "What do we…?"

As he stepped closer, light suddenly began to emanate from the ground. Startled, Harry drew back as lines of power suddenly sprang into being between the rocks seemingly randomly strewn around the well. The lines shot upward, in perfect parallel with each other, pink light suddenly erupting between them.

"A barrier?!?" Kero cried in surprise.

Hesitantly, Harry moved forward and tapped it with the wand. There was a metallic sound as the wand was bounced back. "Well, we definitely know she's evil," he said, only half-joking. "Only someone who's pure evil would make a _pink_ barrier."

"What now?" Winter asked.

Growling, Harry drew one of the Cards. "Sword Card!" he cried as he tossed it into the air, slamming his wand onto it. In a swirl of energy, the reformed narrow blade lay in his hand, it's razor-sharp edge gleaming in the evil pink light. Gripping it in both hands, he swung.

The blade bounced of, again with the ringing sound, but Harry didn't persist. With the skill given him by the card, he twisted, using the rebound to his advantage. There was another ring, and he spun one more, going for an overhead slash. The blade slammed against the wall, and tried to rebound, but Harry didn't relent. His face set, he pushed forward, scraping the point on the barrier…

Like a wall of water, there was a small ripple growing form the tip, a little 'v' that wavered. There was no pink in between. Encouraged, Harry pushed harder.

The blade shook, the 'v' trembled, and suddenly The Sword was almost ripping from his hands as it rebounded back, narrowly missing his face.

"Damn!" he cried. "I almost had it!"

With another inarticulate cry, he swung the blade overhead once more.

It slammed into the wall, and this time he held on, pressing the point as hard as he could. The pink barrier parted slightly again, but The Sword was already shaking in his hands…

Warm hands suddenly engulfed his own. Harry stared in surprise as Winter took hold of the sword, her face grim. He could feel his hands, her fingers, squeezing around his, trying to lend what strength she could. Keroberos was pulling the curled guard of the blade, straining with all his might.

The point moved forward. The ripple widened.

Inch by inch, the three of them moved the point of The Sword down, down, ever down, the barrier parting at the edge of the blade like water…

Finally, it was large enough for Harry to get though. Except…

"It's no good!" Harry cried over the roar of energy splitting. "If I let up to try and go through, it's going to close on me."

"There's got to be a way!" Winter cried, shoulder to shoulder with Harry, her grip like still around his hands.

Kero's head snapped to the side. "Someone's coming!"

They turned, and that was all the lapse in concentration needed. The blade swung up, over and out of the barrier, and Harry and Winter were thrown back by the force. They stumbled, still hand in hand as Keroberos was launched upwards.

A figure moved in a narrow passage between two buildings. Harry and Winter untangled themselves, moving apart. Harry tried to hide The Sword behind his back, while Winter's eyes darted around, looking for Kero.

Lee Yelan stepped out of the darkness, her elegant clothes in stark contrast to her surroundings.

Harry blinked. "Mrs. Lee?"

The Lee clan Matriarch strobe boldly forward to where Harry stood before the barrier. "Stand back," she said. Such was her presence that Harry found himself moving to comply. "H-how did you–"

"The feel Syaoran's magic disappeared suddenly," she said as she raised the fan she held– a fan? Not a wand?– towards the barrier.

Harry winced, drawing back slightly. How could he explain–?

"You are not to blame," Yelan said, holding the fan vertically before her, face smooth, impassive. It had a noble to cast to it. Serene. "He was simply no match for its power."

Here eyes narrowed grimly in concentration. In her hand, the fan started to glow and began moving forward…

Power rushed over Harry. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end as his eyes widened. Winter gasped, rubbing her arms again as the shining fan touched on the barrier…

… and began causing ripples on it's flow.

"That's powerful magic," Keroberos said grimly, and Harry turned in surprise. The Sun Guardian had apparently survived his little launch and was now hovering just behind Harry's left shoulder.

Concentrating, Yelan gripped the fan in both hands, pushing it harder against the barrier. The little ripple grew, becoming a part on the surface of the barrier that slowly widened…

Harry stared in astonishment. _The three of us could barely open it with The Sword Card, but her…_

There were no words.

The pink parted, not just at the point of contact, but all the way down to the ground. The barrier wavered and rippled a foot to either side of the brightly-glowing fan, Yelan's clothes rippling in the magical wind this caused.

"Whoa," Harry gasped.

"Go," Yelan's voice said, cutting through Harry's astonishment.

"R-right!" Harry said, grabbing the Firebolt where it lay. "Winter, wait here. Come on Kero!"

Quickly, Harry and Kero dashed through the narrow opening, careful not to scrape against it. A step and they were through.

Behind them, Winter called out. "Be careful!"

"We will!"

The pink began to close as Lee Yelan drew back her fan, finally closing completely as she stepped back. She stumbled slightly, and Winter quickly rushed to her aid…

There was a brilliant light, and Winter quickly averted her eyes, lest she be blinded.

When she looked back, Harry and Kero were gone…

----------------------------------------

Harry felt like he was floating on water. His limbs felt weightless around him, and he wouldn't have been surprised to see his hair rippling up…

"Where are we?" Harry said in awe as Keroberos flew to where he could see him. It seemed like an empty… blue?... space, stretching out and fading into infinity. If it weren't for the fact he was breathing through his mouth and wasn't wet, Harry would have sworn he was in the heart of some dark sea.

"It's the space between places," Kero said. "Look around you."

As if those words had been a signal, light started to bloom around him. Panels of light appeared, surrounding him and giving Harry the sense he was in some kind of tube of light.

"Those are… dimensions, I suppose you'd call them, but pocket universes would be more accurate," Kero said as Harry stared around in growing astonishment. "This place is where all those places that isn't in what we'd call 'normal' space links together. Be careful! If you get lost here, you might never find you way back!"

"What!" Harry cried, suddenly rounding on the Sun Guardian. "And you didn't think to mention this earlier? How are even supposed to find the right place in all this! They all look alike!"

"I though perhaps we could use you affinity with the Lee girl to trace the right parasite dimension," Kero said, a bit sheepishly.

"THAT WAS IT? THAT WAS YOUR BIG PLAN?" Harry screamed at him. "WHAT 'AFFINITY'? I **HATE** HER!"

"That's still a connection!" Kero said.

"I DON'T THINK IT'S GOING TO WORK!"

"Well, you have any better ideas?!?"

Harry was about to retort, but paused as he felt… warmth?

He looked at the card-holster on his arm. At the very bottom, where he wasn't likely to use it by accident, a Card glowed.

"Fly…?" Harry murmured. He and Kero exchanged a look.

"It might work," the Sun Guardian said.

Carefully, Harry drew out the Card. "Lead me to your master… _please_…" he whispered, and gave the Card the barest of taps.

The Sealing Wand touched, and the Card seemed to unravel. Before his very eyes, a shining white bird appeared, like an ethereal swan, it's wings wider than roads, a burning light in the gloomy abyss between worlds. The Fly Card looked at him with one enormous eye, then turned away. Even as Harry watched, it began to approach one glowing panel of light, seemingly no different from the others… except it was growing brighter.

"There!" Harry cried as he mounted his Firebolt. Grabbing Keroberos, they both raced after The Fly, afraid of being left behind. Harry touched the panel of light… and passed through…

The first thing was the sound of water. There was always water, now.

"Where are we?" Harry said, looking around. It wasn't anywhere familiar, merely a space where four roofs didn't meet, forming a square into open air. Streams of water were cascading from three of the roofs. The ground underneath was already flooded. "This doesn't look familiar…"

"It might not…" Kero said, separating from Harry to fly under his own power. "But feel the air…"

Harry concentrated. Yes… it was the familiar feel of _her _power…

Out of the corner of his eye… there was a flicker of white…

"There!" Harry cried, as the two birds _just_ disappeared.

Broom in one hand, Sword in the other, Harry and Keroberos ran into the dark doorway…

They passed the door, felt wood underfoot… and then, darkness, featureless darkness, blank as fresh ink…

Harry ran, following where he could feel the birds. Between one step and the next, he was nowhere… and then he was somewhere.

"W-wha–?" he said as he stared at the sudden change in scenery. Birdcages of all sizes surrounded him, forming a narrow avenue through which he could pass. Canvass awnings functioned as the ceiling above. "Where are we?"

"I don't know," Kero said. "But look up."

Harry did. The space between the awnings was… "Water?!?"

It looked exactly the way water did as seen from below, except…

"It looks like dimensions are mixing here," Kero said. "You'd better use that spell Winter told you about."

Shuddering slightly, Harry quickly cast the Bubble-head Charm that Winter had found in his books in preparation for this. "Let's go. This place is giving me the creeps!"

"This way!"

They ran. Down narrow alleys and unrecognizable passages, they ran. Sheets and stream of water would splash down from hidden and unlikely places, and still they ran. They followed the feeling, the flashes of white just out of the corner of their eyes, up stairs and through doorways. Sometimes, they would catch sight of the swan-like for of The Fly, of hear the sound of it's wings. Still they ran.

And suddenly, between one footstep and the next, they were in pure darkness once more, and then they were elsewhere. Harry got the sense of fallen pillars of stone, strewn all around as a graveyard of greatness…

And before him, with The Fly floating back and forth before it like an impatient pigeon, were a pair of doors.

Harry slowed his step as he approached, standing before the massive portal. "She's in there," he whispered. "I know it…"

"Yeah…" Kero said.

Steeling himself, the Card Captor placed both hands upon the wood– what _felt_ like wood– and pushed.

The doors parted, sinking into the wall of water on the other side. Harry stepped back, and suddenly he wasn't too sure where he was standing. Was he actually looking down on the water from standing on the wall? The doors kept moving, and Harry had the horrible thought that gravity was pulling them down…

"Harry," Kero's voice said, breaking Harry's morbid thoughts. He took a deep breath.

"Right, "Harry said, tapping the Bubble-head Charm to check it was still in place and mounting the Firebolt. He held out The Sword in front of him. "_Lumos!_"

The tip of The Sword shone, lighting the way before him, futilely trying to illuminate the darkness ahead…

Harry became aware that The Fly Card was still by his side. It seemed to be waiting for him. Why hadn't it returned to Lee?

No matter. He could use the company. He reached into a pocket, and pulled out the goggles, quickly putting the mover his eyes. The knife was still in place. "Let's go…"

Boy, Card and Guardian, they stepped into the water…

It wasn't as cold as Harry thought. The spells were repelling the water from his clothes, leaving a surreal, silvery layer of air over the fabric. Only his head and hands got wet, and thanks to the Bubble-head Charm and the goggles, not completely.

Behind them, he _felt_ more than saw the door way disappear, and suddenly the water changed around them. Now it was a little brighter, and he could see the fallen and broken pillars of stone…

_We're here…_Harry thought.

Quickly, Harry pulled the Firebolt up, and they flew towards the light on the edge of the water…

----------------------------------------

Across Hong Kong, they felt the magic at work. Wizards, witches, sorcerers, sorceresses, fortune-tellers, magi or whatever they called themselves, those attuned and knew the ways of magic felt the power pulse through the night. These were not mere children, but masters at their craft, not merely content to wave a wand to fulfill their wants, but daring to master it in ways that no longer seemed necessary, for these were times of piece. All those who had learned to feel magic stopped what they were doing and looked out into the night sky. There was power and malevolence in the air, and suddenly they were uneasy.

Hands went to wands, wards, fans, bells, swords or what every it was they used in their arts (in one or two unusual instances, cell phones were grasped, screensavers with unusual symbols appearing on the displays). Circles were drawn on the ground, and certain boards. Some turned to consult the spirits– vodka and sake were preferred, but whatever ready alcohol did as well.

And in secret places, brightly lit against those of ill intent, drew together, preparing to deal with this threat. For unlike the west, those who dealt in the magics could very well appreciate the power of the spirits. It was a part of their magical theory, as intricately tied here as the Wand and Word were in others.

They prepared and waited.

And across the continents and mountains, in a surprisingly cheerful house on an island far, far away, one eye opened.

"So… It begins…"

There was a glint of gold…

----------------------------------------

The Madoushi opened her eyes as Harry rose from the water, coming to rest on the flat remains of a fallen pillar. He held his broom in one hand, and The Sword in the other as his Guardian hovered by his side. Above him, shining like the moon itself, The Fly rose, protecting his back. He stared at her, his eyes defiant.

"You again…" she said imperiously, quite unlike her previous ravings. "Why have you returned?"

"I've come to bring everyone back!" Harry cried, his words echoing slightly in the chamber.

"If you wish them back, then bring me Clow Reed," the Madoushi said.

"We can't bring him here even if we wanted to!" Keroberos yelled. "Clow is long–"

"I waited forever," she interrupted. For a moment, her eyes seemed to change, and then they were covered in shadow as she bowed her head.

_This doesn't look good…_ Harry thought.

"I waited forever for Clow to come… forever…"

"ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION TO WHAT I'M SAYING?!?" Keroberos screamed, his little patience not above snapping at someone as dangerous as this.

Suddenly, Harry felt the ground beneath him shake.

Ripples were growing on the water, the circles expanding outward from the stones half-submerged on it's surface. There was an ominous _brittle_ sound as stones began to fall. Harry saw one lopsided pillar start to crack…

The water began to splash as pieces of the roof fell to the law of gravity and pillars began to break in half. The Fly Card moved, and Harry heard the soft thuds as the white bird shielded him from debris.

Seven orbs began to rise up from the water beneath the Madoushi. Harry could see the fallen forms off those trapped within. Suddenly the orbs glowed, brightly, before turning into streaks of light that entered the Madoushi's body. She began to glow in an unearthly crimson light.

"NO!" Harry cried.

"This is the last time," she said, as causally as if her surroundings weren't collapsing around her. "Where is Clow Reed?"

"And _**WE'VE**_ been trying to tell _**YOU**_ that he's dead!" Harry cried.

"Very well then…" she said, as if pronouncing judgment. "Die here."

There was crimson flash, and suddenly the Madoushi was gone, turned in a rushing line of light escaping straight up…

----------------------------------------

Lee Yelan and Winter Moon stood waiting before the well on the other side of the barrier. Even through the haze of pink, Winter could see the surface of the water glowing with an unearthly crimson light.

She rubbed her arms, shivering. Her skin just wouldn't stop prickling, and she wished she'd worn a sweater…

Yelan moved towards her, putting her arms around her and drawing her back a little. She looked at the Lee Matriarch questioningly…

The barrier suddenly flashed.

It flashed once, twice, three times and then…

The barrier seemed to fade for a moment…

Before there suddenly erupted a deep crimson line, shining towards the sky. Winter heard the crush of wood and masonry, saw the black outline of the well crumbling and breaking into dust…

The red light shone high above Honk Kong…

High in the sky, the Madoushi opened her eyes and saw a city of light…

"Where am I…?,"she said in confusion.

Through Yelan's embrace, Winter saw the broken remains of the well…

----------------------------------------

Within the collapsing chamber, the rocks continued to crumble…

"Time to leave!" Harry said, mounting the Firebolt and grabbing Keroberos. The Sun Guardian grabbed hold of his arm, holding on tight as the Cad Captor kicked off. He rose through the air, trying to doge between falling rocks while steering one-handed, The Sword flashing in the light as he cut falling rocks coming at him. But it was slow going, so slow… The Firebolt, while the fastest broom in the world, had been designed to do so in a straight run. In the broken field flying needed to avoid the rocks, it was no better than any other broom…

Harry suddenly felt power behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a flash of white…

Two white wings sprouted from the tail of his broom.

"Fly…?" Harry whispered.

The wings twitched…

Harry suddenly rolled wide out of the way of a falling rock as the power of The Fly Card suffused the Firebolt. He cork-screwed through the air as the broom began to fly in ways he'd never imagined…

Grinning and thankful for the sudden gift of agility and maneuverability, Harry aimed for the light…

----------------------------------------

"_**NO!!!**_" Winter cried as she rushed for what was left of the well, but Yelan's gentle touch on her shoulder held her back. Startled, she turned towards the older woman.

The Lee wasn't looking at her, staring at the surface of the water intently…

"He's coming…" she said.

Little pins of light suddenly began to hover over the surface of the water, turning into lines that streaked towards the water's surface. There was a sense of power rising in the air as more and more light collected, and the water began to shine brightly…

Winter shivered as she rubbed her arms.

The water exploded in a pillar of light that rose into the sky. Threads of light separated from, dancing around it as it tapered to become…

"HARRY!" Winter cried in relief.

Harry rose in the air, the moon before him as he flew up above the city. At the tail of the Firebolt, the wings beat, keeping time to their own rhythm. His head darted from side to side, his eyes seeking.

"Where is she?" he cried.

Keroberos opened his eyes– _This kid flew like a maniac!_– and saw her. "Above you!"

Harry barely managed to swing the room in time to avoid the stream of water lancing down from above.

"Where is this?!?" she cried. "What have you done to Clow Reed!!!"

Desperately, Harry flipped himself upside-down so he was hung under his broom, widely trying to keep the Madoushi in sight as he tried to avoid her shots. "He's gone, all right! Dead! Haven't you been listening? He's DEAD!"

Harry was forced lower into the lights, slipping in between the glowing neon signs to avoid the rush of water. He heard the exclamations of surprise behind him as people were surprised by the sudden shower, felt the small shocks of magic as wizards– or whatever they were called here– cast small spells. How strange, to realize he wasn't alone…

"This is getting us nowhere!" Keroberos cried, eyes firmly shut once more.

"I can't use the Cards right now, if you haven't noticed!" Harry shot back. Performing a barrel roll, Harry aimed for that split second. "_Incendio!_"

The fire spell flashed though the air, only to be intercepted by the bands of cloth.

"Crap!" Harry cried, just before the bands surrounded him. He tried to cut them with The Sword, but they were too fast, binding around his arms and ripping him of the Firebolt. The sudden change in direction threw Keroberos off him, the little Sun Guardian crying his name as he disappeared into the night…

----------------------------------------

Alarms flew through the magic quarters of the city. Those who could feel the power were awed, and those who couldn't could still bloody well _see_ it. They squeezed in through puzzled muggles wondering where all the water was coming from, trying to get closer to the source. Occasionally they would modify the memory of one who'd had too good a view, or someone who was frantically trying to make an emergency call to report a woman in the sky firing water at a boy on a broom. The ring of a bell here, a flick of a wand there, even a wave of a cell phone, as secrets tried to be kept…

----------------------------------------

The construction site was empty this time of night, and especially at his altitude. Metal sheets where they would pour the concrete for further floors were laid on the girders, while boxes covered by tarps and other supplies littered already-concrete floors.

In the center floated the Madoushi, her bands of cloth holding her prisoner aloft a ways before her. "Talk!" she demanded. "Where is Clow Reed?"

"Clow Reed is dead!" Harry shot back. He was getting really sick of this.

"LIAR!"

"He's been dead for a hundred years!" Harry continued. "I've been telling you that over and over again! Haven't you been listening?"

"NO!" she cried. "You're lying!"

The ferocity of the declaration shocked Harry into silence.

"He would never die," she said, suddenly quietly, desperately. Little arcs of crimson lightning seemed to be flickering around her. "No Clow Reed…"

Harry felt the magic prickling he senses, and he turned. In the bay, waterspouts were rising, dancing around one another in deceptive beauty…

Behind the Madoushi, two spouts were already twisting like malevolent serpents as more crimson arcs appeared around her.

"Clow Reed would never…"

The voice sounded almost tearful…

"HE WOULD NEVER DIE!!!" she screamed.

Crimson arcs leapt upward as the water spouts twisted themselves into one ball of water. Pink barriers suddenly erupted between the girders.

_Oh, shi–_

With a roar like a thousand damned souls, the water fell…

----------------------------------------

Darkness…

Was this the place where dreams are held, played in the stage of the mind? Was this where nightmares came to rest, peeling back it's face of terror to put it's foot up on the sofa and read a nice comfy book?

….

Where had _that_ come from?

Seven souls rested in this midnight realm, neither waking nor sleeping. They lay drifting upon the ocean of night, so close yet so far from the shores of waking.

They did not dream…

They _remembered…_

----------------------------------------

Silence came over the night as the water stopped rushing. The surface grew still as the pool, formed of water and barrier, settled in its place, water finding it's own level.

The Madoushi hung there, face shadowed. She gazed into the water, seeing not the future but a dream of the past. Her bands of cloth trailed into the water, flailing slightly…

"I waited forever for him…" she whispered, the words nearly taken by the wind. "Forever…"

A bead gathered…

"I never stopped calling to him with all my strength…"

It grew larger and began to roll…

"No matter how many years…"

It traversed the blank, smooth expanse... and fell.

"No matter how many decades it took…"

A single glowing tear touched the water…

----------------------------------------

In the darkness, _they_ saw…

There was a well…

And a woman…

And a man…

"_I have no reason to accept this thing."_

She glared at him almost petulantly, offended pride in every line.

"_Today is your birthday, isn't it?"_

His smile was offensive… but then, it nearly always was.

"_That is a gift to you."_

He turned to go, the Sun and Moon on his back.

"_If you do not want it, please throw it away."_

She stared at him, her face softening, and looked upon the trinket on her lap…

And at least one heart wept for her…

----------------------------------------

Harry tried to struggle against the bands pinning his arms in place. He didn't dare risk using The Sword Card to cut himself free, the chance of slicing himself open too high. He struggled not to cry out, tried not to let his imagination populate the dark water with monsters, tried to take his mind of the feeling of hundreds of razor-sharp teeth suddenly appearing from below and ripping his legs off…

He was running out of air…

The flat of the blade tapped the side of his head as he wasted a precious mouthful of air trying to recast the Bubble-Head Charm on himself. One edge clipped dangerously close to his ear…

He tried to kick up, but the bands held him in place, his legs slicing ineffectually through the water. His lungs ached, he could feel his head starting to pound, all his instincts screaming to take a breath…

His mind screamed, desperate for oxygen…

There was a rush of magic within The Sword as it touched his head again…

Harry opened his mouth and took a breath…

…of air.

For a moment, Harry only gasped not realizing what had happened. Then his eyes snapped open, and he looked down as the seemingly insignificant bubble of air clinging to his mouth and nose. Experimentally, he took a deep breath. Then another.

He pivoted around the stare at The Sword. Had he actually managed to cast the spell? Granted, it was smaller than what the books had said, covering only a small portion rather than his whole head, but…

Harry shook of these trivial musings as he concentrated on what he needed to do. He needed to get free.

Calmer now that he was breathing again, he maneuvered his arms towards the front of his body where he could see them. Flipping The Sword around so that the blade was facing away, Harry reached for his other Cards.

One in particular seemed to be almost… _straining_… to get out…

Harry blinked.

Before him, slowly sinking into the water, was a drop of light…

There was a well…

----------------------------------------

Below the Madoushi, the water rippled… _bulged_…

The surface broke as _something_ suddenly exploded from below, water sheeting off it as it rose…

It was a tree.

Verdant leaves glistened. Water flowed along the bark as it continued to rise from out of the water. There was the ominous creak of steel at the sudden explosion of weight.

There was a loud bang as roots tore through the steel plating of the floor keeping the water in. There was another roar as the water erupted out, probably giving some surprised night watchmen an unexpected bath…

As the Madoushi stared in surprise at the unexpected growth, already spreading outward, roots twining over exposed steel in a bid to secure itself, it seemed to turn, like a giant looking over it's shoulder…

"ATTACK!"

One thick branch suddenly swung at her, and the Madoushi drew back, water coming to her hands as the tree suddenly lunged at her, attacking with more limbs than a human had a right to.

Good thing it wasn't human.

Harry left the embrace of Wood's tree, watching as the remains of the bands that had imprisoned him seemed to dissolve way. It was time to make his stand, now.

He drew.

"Jump Card!"

He felt the power rushing to his leg's could see the ephemeral wings at his ankles. Somewhere, in the back of his consciousness, he could feel Jump, nestled beside Sword.

"Dash Card!"

More power rushed down, meant to drive him in a different direction. A third mind joined it's siblings.

"Windy! Thunder! Sand!"

The wind rose. Ions and grit filled the air as the three beings appeared at his back.

"Take her down!"

Windy struck, her ever-present element gathering even faster than the Madoushi's water. The blast of air stuck like a brick wall, bursting the water she'd been gathering into so many droplets. Yellowish bands erupted along Windy's arms as miniature tornados erupted from her limbs, slamming the spirit back.

Sand hovered on the outskirts of this storm, not daring to interfere with her sister's rage. Sand flowed around the two combatants, collecting the ions in the air that Thunder was releasing…

"Now!" Harry cried, praying this would work.

Windy and Wood's tree drew back as Thunder unleashed its power. It energized the ionized sand, creating a cloud of energy that bound the Madoushi, offering no escape as she cried out…

There was an explosion, and Harry got the sense of a water balloon exploding…

Seven bursts of light materialized into falling bodies. Wood, and Windy reacted quickly, vines, branches and yellow air reaching for the falling they manage to get three each, but the last was too far…

Harry heard a small 'boom', heard a clatter as his Firebolt dropped and slid next to his feet as a glowing streak of white flew towards the falling form…

No Card will ever fail it's master.

----------------------------------------

Lee Fei touched down on the branch the tree– The Wood Card, she surmised– helpfully extended to her. She touched down lightly on it, the drifted off, to where the drama was unfolding, her sword in her hand.

"NO! STOP! STOP HURTING HER! HARRY, PLEASE STOP!!!"

Sakura cried frantically at Harry, her brother and his friend standing indecisively behind her. Syaoran was helping Meilin to her feet with the assistance of a concerned Tomoyo.

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Sakura tried to explain. "SHE'S–"

"I know," Potter interrupted. "I saw it too."

The two looked at each other, as if there was something only the two of them could understand. Sakura's tear-filled eyes stared at Potter pleadingly, begging.

Finally Potter let out a breath, and he made a cutting gesture with his left hand. The night darkened as Thunder's power stilled, only little arcs between grains of sand the only evidence of what had happened. In mid-air, the Madoushi seemed to slump as she was released from the electricity's grip.

Sakura stepped forward daintily as Fei went to stand by her cousin. Her brother made a move to stop her, but his friend drew him back, shaking his head.

Finally, Sakura stood before the weakened spirit.

"You really loved him, didn't you?"

They all watched, silent witnesses in the night as the little girl spoke the words to free the tortured spirit…

----------------------------------------

""You knew," Sakura said, staring at Harry. There was nothing accusing in her gaze, only the confusion of a child who sought to understand.

Harry nodded, turning away from watching Erase removing the evidence of their presence, which was mainly the big tree Wood and grown. The others stood around them, waiting to see what would happen. "I knew."

"But why? Why did you fight her? You knew she was hurting."

Harry shrugged. "Maybe. But I _knew_ she had you all. She hadn't listened to me before. Why would she start now?"

They all looked at what was left of the pile of dust that was Clow Reed's gift to the Madoushi. Sakura had tried to gather it all, but the wind had been too strong. Only a small pinch remained as the rest was blown out over the city.

"She only wanted to tell him…" Lee whispered mournfully.

Harry met her eyes, and knew what he said next applied to both of them. "She should have told him sooner, then…"

----------------------------------------

The Madoushi opened her eyes, staring at the mists leading on to beyond. So this was what it was like to be truly gone.

She remembered the young, tearful face, crying for her in sadness. In _understanding_…

"_Is Clow Reed really dead?" she had finally managed to say, her voice breaking._

_And the boy, who reeked of Clow Reed's power, nodded. "He died a long time ago."_

_And she'd closed her eyes in sorrow, finally letting herself know the truth…_

"_I waited for him forever… forever…" _

_She could feel herself fading away, her memories, her __**self**__, fleeing the shell of hate and anger, of magic and water. _

"_For such a long time…" _

_The world faded around her as she finally let go._

"_I wanted to see him… to tell him something…"_

_And she was gone…_

,,,and here.

Steeling herself, she began to make the journey…

"Wait."

She froze. That voice.

He looked exactly as she remembered him. He would, she knew, in this place.

"Clow Reed…" she whispered.

He smiled, the damned, damned, _damned_… _sexy_ smile as he stepped closer to her…

She didn't know when she moved. All she knew that she found herself in her arms, tears– happy tears, desperate tears– ran down her face, dampening his shirt– but was there really any shirt to dampen?

"Is this real?" she managed, looking up into his face.

"It is as real as always," he said, still smiling. "It's good to see you again, Su Yung."

"Were you waiting for me?"

"In a way. I've come to say good bye."

She blinked in confusion. "'Good bye'?"

He reached up and whipped away her tears. "I've come to see you off."

----------------------------------------

They all floated in the air, courtesy of Potter's magic. Fei held her sister's hand, pulling her and Tomoyo along as Potter did the same for Touya, Yukito, Syaoran and Sakura. Illusion covered them from below, making them fade into the night's sky.

"Will we get in trouble for this?" Potter said as the approached the place where he'd left her aunt and Moon.

"Probably not," Syaoran said. "Mother was a lot of… influence… "

Potter sighed. "Nepotism reigns supreme everywhere doesn't it?"

"We don't like to put it like that," Syaoran said. "More like…not bothering with unimportant details. By tomorrow, this'll all be a fireworks display. That building will be exactly as you found it, and no one will talk about this in official circles again."

"Besides," Fei said, feeling she had to say something. Nepotism, huh? That was rich coming from an Englishman. "Clow Reed created a lot of things in his life-time, not just the Clow Cards, though those were certainly his greatest and last creations. A lot of the things he made are still around, still being used. I've no doubt that everyone who's ever studied Clow's work recognized his power tonight."

"As long as he gets us out of this," Potter grumbled. "It's all _his_ fault, after all."

"Here we go again," Fei said, annoyed. "And how exactly is this all Clow's fault?"

"If he could read the future well enough to ruin her business, then he _must_ have known this would happen! He must have at least known how she felt. Why didn't _he_ say anything?"

The question lingered.

"Exactly," Potter said with a note of grim, self-satisfied finality. "This is his fault too."

"Righteous, isn't he?" Fei heard Meilin mutter, and had to suppress a smile of her own. Maybe this'll keep her sister from being so close to the idiot.

And then they were landing in the broken well, now just a pile of rubble in an empty space between buildings, and Moon was running towards them with arms open wide…

----------------------------------------

Meilin could suppress a chuckle as she watched Syaoran almost being engulfed by his mother. His sisters had arrived some time while Harry was dealing with the Madoushi, and were currently hugging the Card Captor to death in thanks for rescuing their little brother.

"It's sweet, isn't it?" Tomoyo said as Fei rolled forward to try and get them off him, more concerned with them actually being in physical contact with Harry than anything else.

Meilin shook her head at her sister's neurosis. How blind she could be…

Looking sideways at Tomoyo, Meilin ever so casually reached out with her hand…

There was nary a wince as it found what it was looking for. Instead, Tomoyo turned to her with a beatific smile. "I was wondering when you'd notice me."

Meilin's eyes widened and she gave a little start as Tomoyo's hand reciprocated.

The other girl giggled…

----------------------------------------

"It's not fair…" the Madoushi said bitterly as she clutched Clow's lapels to her, her head and his chest. "After all this time… why didn't you look for me?"

"Would you have listened?" he said, sounding amused.

She sighed. "Probably not." A pause. "Who was that boy who was using your power?"

"A relative," Clow Reed said. "An unforeseen descendant of mine with a… _friend_ in England."

She took an opportunity to whack him on the head. Even without the inflection, she knew what he meant by 'friend'… "And the girl?"

"Sakura-chan? She is a descendant as well. More than that, technically. You could say she is my half-daughter."

She looked at him sharply. "You sired her?"

"In a way, I did," he said, and explained no more. "She was to be my heir, you know. The Mistress of the Cards. Alas, it appears I wasn't able to see all that fate would bring. He is my heir now, or at least, if he proves worthy, he will be."

She nodded and said no more. The two of them stood like that, bound together at the edge of infinity.

Finally, she drew back. "I have to go now. I can't delay any more…"

He smiled, sadly now. "Let me walk with you a little way. Who knows? Maybe we will meet again sooner than you think."

"Oh?"

"After all… _I_ came back, didn't I?"

Together, they strode into the mist.

----------------------------------------

"He's not breathing!"

"Relax…"

"Why is his skin so cold?"

"Ruby…"

"Out of the way!"

"RUBY!"

SPLASH!

There was the tinkling of water on leather upholstery and expensive carpet. And then…

"Ruby… I was waking up."

"Sorry master…"

----------------------------------------

**- To be continued...**

----------------------------------------

A/N: AND we're done! Just the epilogue to go, and then it's on to Season 2 and the Goblet of Fire!

That 'cell phones as wands' idea is a bit of a joke and homage to _**Gatekeepers 21**_. Damn, that series needs another sequel!

Harry accidentally did unincanted magic out of desperation. Don't expect him to do it again any time soon…

The Wood Card has an unstoppable urge to grow when it's submerged in water. In the anime, it _really_ did a number on Sakura's house.

The chapter establishes a lot of what I've decided to include from both the anime and the manga, with my own twist thrown in.

Please review, C&C welcome.

Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.


	7. The New Dream

A/N:

A/N: Enjoy!

--

Card Captor Harry: Hong Kong

by Shadow Crystal Mage

Chapter 7: The New Dream

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does. I wish her well and covet her money. Card Captor Sakura belongs to CLAMP, not me. I covet their drawing skills. Both are used here without their owners' permission. I'm not doing this for money, so please don't sue me.

--

_Harry Potter stared out the porthole of the plane as it taxied out of the airport. He could vaguely make out the party of those who'd come to see them off– mostly by the shine of Yukito's hair– through the airport's windows before the plane moved and blocked off all view. Sighing, he lay back on his seat, noting how much more comfortable the business-class seats were compared to coach. Apparently, the Lee's had more clout than he thought._

_After the bumpiness and initial discomfort of take off, Harry reached under his seat as the seatbelt signs turned off, pulling out the black bag he'd stowed under there. _

_Balancing it precariously on his seat tray, he carefully unzipped it and flipped open the top, staring mutely at what was inside. _

_Next to him, Winter looked over his shoulder, staring admiringly at the hardware stored therein. "I still can't believe Syaoran gave you a laptop," she said. Her identical case was stowed in the overhead compartment._

"_Neither can I," Harry said, still a bit awed. Syaoran had presented the bags to the two of them the night before, with Tomoyo video-taping the whole thing and his sisters going on about how cute it all was in the background in the midst of another session of stuffing Kero with food…_

--

Harry could only stare as he looked at the open carrying bag in front of him. To the side, Winter was already squealing in joy fit to break a few eardrums and possibly the sound barrier as she began to– well, fondle seemed to be the only appropriate word– her new laptop. It was black, slim, sleek and had that textured finish that was supposed to give it a 'toughened' look. "Wha…?"

"It's called a laptop, Potter," (Fei) Lee said disdainfully as she leaned back against the wall , arms, of course, crossed as she contrived to be as far away from Harry and still be in more-or-less the same room. "You know, those? It's what computers have become?"

"I thought that was cell phones?" Harry managed as Winter and Tomoyo began to chatter about it. The two had been exchanging ideas all vacation. Sakura had been gotten nervous about it, and after hearing of the stories of Tomoyo's infamous clothes, so had Harry. It had been generally agreed by everyone except Sakura– who was too nice to actually think those things about people although the trace of them was there– that those two were the most twisted thinkers in the house when it came to making things and plans that actually got _applied_.

Pulling himself together, Harry turned to Syaoran. "Um, why?"

"It's a going away present," the seemingly-only-Lee-male said. "Something to remember your trip to Honk Kong by. And so that you won't have to sneak using your cousin's computer any more. And you'll be able to continue writing at school too."

It had come as quite a shock to Syaoran when he'd found out Harry was one of his favorite writers. From there the other boy had managed to drag the reason for Harry's erratic update schedule out of him. Apparently, this was to be the result.

"Hang on," Harry said, finally managing to mentally grasp something. "Even if with this, I wouldn't be able to write at school. I know this one. High-order electronic devices don't work at Hogwarts. Something to do with the magic in the air clogging the conductors in microchips and keeping them from forming electric circuits. That's why things like wristwatches and flashlights work there but calculators and cell phones don't. Hermione told me that once. "

Syaoran raised an eyebrow. "You actually know that one? I'm surprised. Most people get told technology doesn't work at places like Hogwarts because there's too much magic in the air, they don't listen to the second part and start generating inane theories about how there are wards that exist to block their cell phone signals and either waste their time trying to get around the non-existent wards or decide there's a government conspiracy to isolate muggleborns so as to brainwash them into Wizarding society…"

Syaoran noticed people looking at him funny and coughed. "Well, anyway, those are experimental models that one of our companies have been working on. They have iron sheathing to 'ground' the excess magic and the circuits are made of a special superconductor to allow for better electric transmission. There's some kind of spell to superfreeze the metal to do this, plus there's some kind of array that lets it use magic for it's processes, although that's sort of secondary… it's all in the manual in there somewhere."

As it turned out, there was also a mouse, a tablet, a digital camera, some kind of scanner and a printer in the bag too, as well as a slim satellite phone array, all as experimentally magic-proofed as the laptop. Syaoran and, Harry got the impression, Yelan, had apparently pulled all the stops in this little going away present…

Harry stared at the slightly-heavier-than-normal devices that had come with the bag, along with the multitude of wires that went with them to put them together. One very big thought was repeating itself in his head, and finally clamored its way out. "No way am I letting the Dursleys know about this…."

Winter patted him on the shoulder. "Hey cheer up," she said, "At least you have a place to put all those cosplay pics now…"

--

_As the plane continued on, Harry booted up his new computer, muting the sound so as not to disturb the other passengers. His wallpaper popped up._

_He stared at it as his new computer continued with its 'start up' routine. He, Winter ,Syaoran, Sakura, Tomoyo, Meilin… everyone, in short, were standing in front of the camera, most smiling and wearing costumes. Sakura looked slightly uncomfortable in her slightly harem-girl-like outfit, while Lee looked like she wanted to bash someone's head in with the weird, vaguely astronomy-ruler-like topped staff she was holding…_

--

Winter sighed as Lee adjusted the goggles around her neck, twitching it to maximum effect. "You know, I wish Harry and I had costumes for this," she said, looking envious at the other girl's outfit. Said outfit consisted of a green cloak, a dark top, and baggy canvas pants tied up at the ankles, along with the aforementioned goggles.

KickAssArchaeologistSyaoran!Fei shrugged apologetically. "Sorry. It's not like I knew you and Potter would be coming. Besides, you can still enjoy the convention without being in costume."

"I guess," Winter sighed, just barely not flouncing as she followed Lee downstairs. "I just wished we had enough time to create some costumes for ourselves…"

It took a while for Lee to realize she was climbing down the stairs alone and turned. Winter was staring at nothing, eyes wide as she mouthed something over and over again…

"Harry!" she suddenly cried, fumbling for her notebook. "Harry, could you do me a favor?!"

In her hands was The Create Card…

It took a while for Harry, Kero and, surprisingly, Lee to come out of their make-shift barricade, since it was hard for them to take Winter at her word that she wouldn't be writing any more self-insert possibly lemon fanfics in The Create Card. Once this was managed, however, and Harry and Lee came to an agreement about using the card _this_ time, it all came down to trying to find out how to use The Create to make what they had in mind, with everyone else standing around them trying to be helpful…

This turned out to be a good thing. It was Tomoyo who suggested that, well they had a magic book and a magic pen, and nowhere is it _required_ that they write down what they wanted created, so why don't they just draw it in? After all, that's what she did for her designs for Sakura's clothes…

All in all, Sakura was _very_ nervous when they gingerly handed The Create to Tomoyo to draw on it. Who _knew_ what sort of _kawai_-as-a-million-kittens outfit she might make…?

Fortunately, after Tomoyo had gotten the hang of it enough to be reproducing a veritable _wardrobe_ of clothes she'd designed for Sakura ("_HOEEEEE!!_"), it was a relatively simple matter to have her make the costume Winter had in mind…

"PLEASE tell me that comes with some kind of cover," Harry said when he saw Winter in the outfit. Next to him, (Fei) Lee was unconsciously nodding emphasis. "I've seen the close-ups. She doesn't wear underwear."

DarkMagicianGirl!Winter rolled her eyes at the two and lifted up her skirt (causing a moment of panic as Harry, Fei, Sakura, Touya, Yukito and Syaoran all got ready to cover their eyes, although the former two subconsciously slowed down to maybe catch a glimpse), revealing that she was sufficiently covered in that area, thank-you-very-much (Harry, Fei and Meilin were very disappointed). "See? It's like a swimsuit with a skirt on. Sheesh, give Tomoyo and me _some _credit!i"

"I still think it's indecent," Lee said. Next to her, Harry unconsciously nodded emphasis.

Hiding a small smile of amusement at their antics in favor of a wide, bright smile of complete innocence (the kind of innocence that means you're guilty as hell), she held out he book of The Create Card. "So, who's next?"

Harry brely beat Lee to it. In short order, Harry was begging Tomoyo to draw a particular outfit for him. She graciously complied, cheerfully making a Dark Paladin outfit for him, complete with bladed staff…

Harry had just finished putting on the outfit and heading back downstairs when Tomoyo, Sakura and Meilin came rushing past, the diabolical dark-haired pair carrying piles of clothes. They were pushing Sakura between them, the honey-haired girl blushing profusely and "Ho-eeee!"-ing like there was no tomorrow. He caught sight of the hem of what like a cloak…

"Tomoyo drew the Tsubasa harem-girl outfit, didn't she?" Harry said as he came back down to find Lee holding a staff that she curtly informed him was an astrolabe, or some such astronomical tool.

"Yup," Winter said, smiling brightly. Behind her, Yukito was enthusiastically browsing and stcking bookmarks in a book with a familiar front cover,while Touya was looking grumpier than usual…

When Tsukiyom-hime!Tomoyo, Princess!Sakura and IchiharaYuuko!Meilin came down the stairs, Yukito was cheerfully showing the artist a page he'd bookmarked and saying something about High Priest and King outfits…

--

_Harry looked through the pictures they'd picked up during the event. Most of them had gotten awards and accolades for having such 'detailed, authentic-looking' costumes, although some girls had kept pestering Yukito and Touya to kiss. The fact that the girls later disappeared when the two boys had been out of their sight when everyone had heard a high-pitched squeal echo through the air had caused much speculation…_

_At least four girls– in princess costumes nowhere as good as Sakura's– had hit on Lee, much to Harry's amusement. She'd hit back. The video file of it he'd gotten from Tomoyo had been put in at least ten different folders and web sites, and the original tape was now on his list of prized possessions._

_After admiring the picture of him and Winter accepting the "Best Couple" prize– Lee was being very pissed in the background– Harry shut off his computer. Winter had retired a while ago, and was currently napping, while Mirror– in her older femme-Harry guise– and The Twins Aoi and Pink– under heavy make-up, thick clothes, and an illusory spell or two, and present due to a generously purchased extra ticket courtesy of the Lee Clan– were all clustered over their monitors and enjoying the inflight entertainment. In silence, an added wonder. Harry hoped they managed to squeak them through the airport without running into the Weasleys…_

--

The morning tranquility of the Lee household was broken by a loud scream.

"Argh!-!-!-!-!" the cry echoed. Lee Fei and Fight paused in their morning sparing, listening to the yells. "Hedwig, get off! Ouch! Hey, that– AHHHH!"

The red-eyed girl grinned evilly, serenely, as she listened to her rival's pained cries. From the sound of it, his pet owl was tearing his face off. She sighed happily. It looked like life was finally cutting her a break. Things had seemed unbearable since her aunt had offered to let Potter and Winter stay with them in thanks for saving their lives. She'd almost been physically ill. Not even the rapture of having Winter sleeping in the same house as her, only a few doors away, could compare to the distasteful nausea of having Potter at their house.

Still, it looked like things might be looking up.

Sighing beatifically, she faced Fight. "Shall we get on with it?"

They charged at each other.

--

"Ow," Harry deadpanned as Sakura fussed over the scratches on his face and arms. Despite his best efforts, she wouldn't hear of not taking care of him. She'd owned him for rescuing them, after all.

Glaring at Hedwig, who seemed to have a decidedly smug air as she cleaned out her claws and chomped on a few of the local feed– grasshoppers, apparently– he opened the letter that had been attached to her leg. He briefly wondered how the letters kept from being damaged during the long flights to their addressees as he scanned the letter.

"Hey," he called out to Winter. "The Weasleys are inviting us to stay over at their place later this summer. Ron said his dad might be able to get us tickets to the Quidditch World Cup…"

--

_Harry jerked awake as the plane touched down on the ground. Woozily, he rubbed his neck as he slid up the cover on the porthole. The half-remembered environs of Heathrow airport could be seen through the small opening as the plain started to slow down. Harry popped his ears as he heard the cabin start to wake up, some people popping their belts open as the post-flight announcement rolled through the speakers. Somewhere, the Weasleys– and likely Hermione, since she'd know what to do– were waiting for them to get off. He really hoped they had time to hide the Cards away before then…_

--

**- Complete**

--

A/N: finally ,it's done. I can't believe how long I procrastinated over this.

Anyway, Card Captor Harry Season Two is about to start. Watch out for it…

Please review, C&C welcome.

Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.


End file.
